Outsourced cleaners at the Royal College of Arts currently earn just above the minimum wage of £6.50 per hour. As a growing consensus of Londoners accepts, the minimum wage simply is not enough to live on.

The IWGB, on behalf of its members, wrote to request that the Royal College of Arts take immediate action to implement at least a minimum of the London Living Wage (£9.15) for all outsourced workers.

A deadline of 27 February was given for implementation of the LLW, and when this was missed cleaners at the RCA voted to begin a public campaign to force the college to live up to its responsibilities to its workers.

The IWGB has a track record of success with campaigns of this sort – having secured improved sick pay and holidays for outsourced workers at the central University of London (via the 3 Cosas Campaign) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.