PCS members in Northern Ireland have shown the kind of courage and clarity the entire PCS Union needs. When Sodexo attempted to slash the working week of staff such as, cleaners, receptionists and porters by one day — a 20% cut in income — workers refused to accept it. They organised, they voted, and they took strike action with total unity.
This dispute is not a local anomaly. It is a symptom of a national crisis in outsourced Facilities Management (FM) across the civil service estate — a crisis driven by corporate greed and enabled by HMRC’s refusal to take responsibility for the contracts it funds.
Sodexo: A Multinational Profiting from Poverty Pay
Sodexo is not a struggling employer. It is a global corporation with:
- €28.056 billion in revenue in 2025
- €785 million in net profit
- A portfolio of major public‑sector contracts, including:
– London Underground
– British Transport Police
– Metropolitan Police
– Avon & Somerset Police
– HMRC
This is a company built on public money. Yet it treats the lowest‑paid workers as disposable. While shareholders enjoy rising profits, Sodexo demands that low‑paid workers absorb cuts, redundancies and impossible workloads.
This is exploitation, plain and simple.
What Sodexo Is Doing to Workers
Across civil service buildings, Sodexo is:
- Cutting contracted hours
- Forcing job amalgamations
- Reducing income for already low‑paid staff
- Imposing workloads that cannot be met safely
- Threatening redundancies
- Refusing to recognise PCS
- Refusing to engage with union reps
- Ignoring basic HR and consultation standards
These are not isolated incidents. They are part of a deliberate business model: cut labour, squeeze workers, protect profit.
And the people paying the price are some of the lowest‑paid and most marginalised workers in the public sector.
The Human Reality: Low Pay, High Pressure, No Security
Many FM workers are migrants, women, or workers in precarious circumstances. They are already among the lowest‑paid in the civil service estate.
Cutting their hours by 20% is not a “business adjustment”. It is an attack on their ability to pay rent, feed their families and survive.
These workers keep our buildings clean, safe and operational. Without them, HMRC offices simply could not function.
Yet they are treated as if they are invisible.
PCS rejects this entirely.
The Cost‑of‑Living Crisis: Workers Are Paying While the Government Breaks Its Promises
The last year has been one of the most punishing periods for working‑class households in over a decade. While corporations like Sodexo post billions in revenue and hundreds of millions in profit, the people who clean our offices, keep our buildings safe, and hold the civil service together are being squeezed from every direction.
The rising cost of living falls hardest on the lowest‑paid — including the FM workers Sodexo is targeting for cuts. Cleaners, receptionists and porters already spend a higher proportion of their income on food, rent, utilities and transport. A 20% cut to their working week is not just unfair — it is economically devastating.
And this is where the political betrayal becomes impossible to ignore.
The Labour government was elected on a promise to reverse the outsourcing disaster and deliver “the biggest wave of in‑sourcing of public services in a generation.” They pledged to learn the lessons of Carillion, end the race to the bottom, and ensure public money delivered public good.
Instead, we have:
- Outsourced FM contracts collapsing
- Workers pushed into poverty
- Repairs left undone and buildings becoming unsafe
- Cleaning standards collapsing under impossible workloads
- Private companies extracting profit from essential services
- HMRC refusing to intervene
- And the government quietly shelving its in‑sourcing commitments
- Workers were promised stability. They were promised fairness. They were promised a government that would rebuild public services, not hand them over to corporations whose business model depends on cutting wages and hollowing out staffing.
The cost‑of‑living crisis has exposed the truth: outsourcing is incompatible with economic justice. You cannot protect workers’ living standards while allowing private contractors to slash jobs, cut hours and drive down pay.
Northern Ireland’s Sodexo workers are not just fighting for their own livelihoods — they are fighting against a political and economic model that has failed the entire working class.
Their struggle is part of the wider fight for dignity, security and public ownership.
HMRC’s Role: A Contracting Authority That Pretends It Has No Power
HMRC repeatedly claims that FM cuts are “a matter for the contractor”. This is not true.
As a government department spending public money, HMRC has clear responsibilities:
- To ensure value for money
- To monitor performance and safety standards
- To intervene when contractors fail
- To ensure that workforce treatment does not undermine service delivery
- To protect the health and safety of everyone in its buildings
Instead, HMRC has chosen to look away.
When Sodexo cuts staff, HMRC shrugs. When cleaning standards collapse, HMRC shrugs. When statutory safety checks are missed, HMRC shrugs. When workers face poverty, HMRC shrugs.
This is not neutrality — it is complicity.
Public Money, Private Profit: HMRC Has Learned Nothing
Outsourcing in HMRC has a long and disastrous history:
- Mapeley
- Concentrix
- Fujitsu
- And now Sodexo and Mitie
Every time, the pattern is the same:
- Private companies underbid
- Services collapse
- Workers suffer
- HMRC denies responsibility
- Taxpayers foot the bill
The current FM contracts are simply the latest chapter in a long‑running failure.
What PCS and the BLN Say Must Happen
- End the failing FM contracts HMRC must terminate contracts that do not deliver safe, clean, functioning workplaces.
- Bring FM services back in‑house Insourcing is the only sustainable, ethical and cost‑effective solution.
- Offer Sodexo and Mitie workers HMRC jobs With HMRC pay, terms and conditions — not poverty wages.
- Build PCS membership among FM workers Every branch must recruit FM staff. Their protection depends on collective strength.
- Demand recognition rights PCS must secure bargaining rights with Sodexo and Mitie.
- Support the Northern Ireland strike Their fight is the frontline of a national struggle.
This Is a Fight for the Future of Public Services
Sodexo’s behaviour is disgraceful. HMRC’s inaction is unacceptable. And the treatment of low‑paid FM workers is a stain on the civil service.
But Northern Ireland has shown what happens when workers stand together.
They refused to accept poverty wages. They refused to be intimidated. They organised. They took action. And they forced Sodexo to the table.
This is the power of PCS members. This is the power of collective action.
Show solidarity with these strikers by sending messages of support to nireland@pcs.org.uk
Want to help us build the strength of our union – Get involved and join the Broad Left Network
PCS Broad Left Network 