AGENCY workers employed by Interserve for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) will strike from May Day against the firm’s refusal to negotiate on job cuts, contract changes and sick pay.

Cleaners, messengers, print workers and porters who are members of the PCS union are set to strike on May 1 and 2.

They say that their contracts are unclear, and also claim that they have not been paid back pay from pay increases that they were owed from August 2018.

Union general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “[Members] will not stand by while a failing company like Interserve attacks their terms and conditions and at the same time, refuses to negotiate with the union.

“Staff have told us that changes to their pay dates have left them out of pocket and struggling to make ends meet.

“The whole debacle shows that Interserve should never have been awarded the contract at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.”

Interserve has suffered problems in the past few years, and it was reported last year that it was on the brink of bankruptcy.

However, it was awarded the £67 million contract with the government to run the FCO last August.