Addleshaw Goddard's reception

Addleshaw Goddard has said its London-based night-shift cleaners will be paid the London Living Wage from the autumn, following talks between the firm and its facilities management company.

The move follows Legal Week's story this week (July 29) that Addleshaws' night-shift cleaners are to go on strike next week (August 9) over their wages and other "basic rights". The Cleaners And Independent Workers Union (CAIWU) had alleged that cleaners at Addleshaws' Milton Gate office in Moorgate were paid below the London Living Wage of £10.55 per hour.

The cleaners are employed by Addleshaws' facilities management company, Incentive FM.

But in a later statement, an Addleshaws spokesperson told Legal Week: "We are in regular dialogue with our third-party suppliers, and Incentive FM will be bringing the night-shift team in line with the London Living Wage when salaries are reviewed in the early autumn."

However, a spokesperson at the CAIWU said that neither the union nor any of its members had been informed of the proposed salary change and that, until they are, the strike would go ahead as planned.

According to the CAIWU, about nine of Addleshaws' night-shift cleaners are currently paid below the London Living Wage, and are not offered "an equal number of annual leave days per year", nor a "contractual sick pay agreement".

A CAIWU spokesperson added that 30 to 40 people are expected to protest outside Addleshaws' Milton Gate office in Moorgate between 8am and 12pm on Friday August 9, in support of the night-shift cleaners.

Addleshaws awarded Incentive FM a "multimillion-pound contract" to provide facilities management services in 2015, according to Incentive's website.

The protest leaflets claim that the cleaners affected "have been campaigning for the London Living Wage for over two years".