“Sotheby's cleaners banned from work after protest asking for better sick pay”, 02 Jul 2015

Cleaners at Sotheby’s have been barred from working at the auction house after they staged a protest asking for better sick pay terms in their contracts with their employer Servest…United Voices of the World (UVW), [said] that a representative of Servest, Sotheby’s’ cleaning contractor, which employs the cleaners, had stopped the workers at the door…The cleaners are asking for contractual sick-pay with better conditions from their employer Servest…Sotheby's said the workers had been "suspended" and not sacked…UVW says the contractor Servest had previously written to staff warning them that demonstrating would be regarded as misconduct [and said] ‘Sothebys may not welcome you back onsite’…In a press statement issued in response to enquiries about this story, Sotheby's said it was “among a very small number of companies who pay their cleaning contractors the London Living Wage” and that Servest, “in line with industry practice, provides Statutory Sick Pay for its employees”…