The UK’s richest family has been accused of “playing Scrooge” after allegations that they refused to pay all UK workers the “real living wage” while their own personal wealth swelled by £11.5bn in a single year.
A company majority-owned by the Hinduja family, which was named by the Sunday Times earlier this year as the wealthiest people in Britain, is refusing to offer its workers – who help run a crucial government service – an inflation-matching pay rise.
Some workers at Hinduja Global Services (HGS) – an outsourcing company used by the government to help run the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), which checks potential employees’ criminal records – are paid as little as £9.75 an hour.
The rate is above the legal minimum of £9.50 for workers aged 23 and over, but is below the voluntary “real living wage” (RLW) overseen by the Living Wage Foundation charity. Calculated based on what people need to live on, the rate of the RLW, which is paid by thousands of companies on a voluntary basis, increased last month from £9.90 to £10.90 for workers outside London.
A company spokesperson said: “Any allegation that all the staff based in Liverpool are paid less than the living wage is incorrect.”
HGS, which is part of the Hinduja Group, in April of this year offered the workers a 3.25% pay rise. This is now far below the current rate of inflation, which is running at 9.9% and expected to climb even higher this month.
The workers who run the DBS’s contact centre and back-office functions in Liverpool said they had “had enough” and plan to walk out on strike between 17 and 29 October. It will be the third walkout since August.
The workers are demanding HGS commit to paying at least the £10.90 an hour real living wage, sick pay, an annual leave entitlement of 27 days, paid breaks and greater job security.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS union, said: “It’s disappointing that the multibillionaire owners of HGS are still refusing to give hard-working staff a decent pay rise. They have an estimated personal wealth of more than £28.5bn, so they can definitely afford it.
“Our members are frustrated and angry at the reluctance to pay them fairly, and they’re more than prepared to dig in for the long haul. As Christmas fast approaches, the Hindujas should stop playing Scrooge and treat staff to a pay rise.”
The company said it has “attempted to discuss the demands being made by PCS union and its representatives and reiterated the fact that HGS is unable to accommodate the unreasonable requests being made”.
A long-term HGS worker who declined to be named said: “We are on the frontline of the cost of living crisis, but they are offering us a pitiful 3.25% pay rise when inflation is 10% – it won’t even touch the sides.
“We are unhappy that we are working for an organisation owned by the two richest people in the country, and yet we’re being told there’s no money.
“At every meeting that we have [with management] we’re told it’s tough out there for everybody and the company can’t afford it. But that is outrageous, we are owned by actual billionaires.”
A spokesperson for HGS said: “As of August, this year 68% of the workforce were on wages over the RLW rate of £9.90. The remainder were new starters to the business and earned a minimum of £9.75 an hour. It also must be stressed that this contract was not procured as a real living wage contract, but HGS honoured the rates of existing staff. To say anything other than that is a blatant untruth.
“This year – from 1 April – staff were offered 3.25% – a figure that was well in excess of any public sector pay award for the majority of civil servants and this was not funded by DBS or the taxpayer, but HGS itself. An offer that has been accepted and well received across the rest of the business.”
The company added that under RLW guidelines, employers have until 14 May next year to comply with the pay increase.
The spokesperson said the PSC was wrong to suggest that the Hinduja family were directly involved with HGS. “The PCSU continues to labour the point that somehow the Hinduja family are directly involved in HGS,” he said. “They are not. They are shareholders in HGS alongside a number of other institutional and private investors and reference to the wealth of our shareholders has no relevance to the negotiations with the PCS and shows a lack of understanding of the role of shareholders in public-listed companies.”
A spokesperson for the DBS said: “The Disclosure and Barring Service, along with other organisations in the public sector, is supported by the Crown Commercial Service whose procurement knowledge and expertise ensure the best commercial deals in the interests of taxpayers. HGS was awarded its contract with the DBS to deliver customer advice and support following a fair, open and robust procurement process.”
The Hinduja brothers have seen their combined fortune rise to an estimated £28.5bn. They have been thrown into the spotlight by revelations that they have been allowed to avoid planning rules that should have required them to build 98 affordable flats for key workers and low-income workers at their new £1.2bn luxury development in London.
