TREATMENT OF LOW-PAID EMPLOYEES BY SOTHEBY'S

That this House condemns in the strongest possible terms the employment practices of Sotheby's and its cleaning contractor Servest, concerning cleaners and porters who are members of the trade union United Voices of the World (UVW); is appalled that Sotheby's and Servest consider peaceful protest to be an act of misconduct; further condemns Sotheby's decision to ban from the site cleaners and porters who took part in a lawful, peaceful protest to call for a real Living Wage, contractual sick pay and an end to trade union victimisation; calls on Sotheby's to backdate the London Living Wage to 1 November 2014 and confirm it will remain a Living Wage employer on 1 November 2015; further calls on Sotheby's to provide contractual sick pay rather than Statutory Sick Pay, which only provides £35 for the first week when an employee is off sick and £88.45 per week from there on, which means that the cleaners and porters are constrained to work when sick or to allow their families to go hungry; believes that it is disgraceful for such a wealthy company dealing in luxury goods to pay poverty wages to essential workers; and calls on Sotheby's to reinstate the cleaners and porters who have been banned from the site for exercising their right to protest lawfully and peacefully and to pay all staff the London Living Wage.