Scrap the
Voucher System - Sack Sodexho
Ten years ago Sodexho was a relatively
modest catering company in France, but the company gorged itself
on rich pickings from the privatisation of catering and ancillary
services in many public sector institutions. Now, Sodexho regularly
figures among the top two catering corporations in the world with
operations under various guises in some 70 countries and a global
workforce exceeding 270,000.
The Home Office awarded Sodexho Pass
the contract to administer and promote the government’s voucher
scheme for asylum seekers. The firm promoted the scheme to Britain’s
biggest supermarket chains as "a revenue-making opportunity". Home
Secretary Jack Straw has refused to disclose how much Sodexho makes
from the voucher scheme declaring that: "The contractual details
are commercially confidential."
Sodexho has a major presence
in public sector institutions across Britain. A survey conducted
by Unison’s Bargaining Support Unit found that Sodexho and
its subsidiaries have contracts with at least 120 public sector
institutions. Most of these contracts stem from the corporation’s
take-over of another big private catering firm, Gardner Merchant.
Its interests range from domestic and ancillary services at a Glasgow
hospital through to catering at numerous universities, colleges
and local councils in London and the south east of England. The
company is involved with at least four Private Finance Initiative
schemes for the construction and management of new NHS hospitals
for a profit.
Unison branches in Camden and Hackney
have adopted policies to pressure their respective managements to
terminate contracts with Sodexho, while offering support to the
company’s ordinary employees. A campaign against Sodexho has
been underway since last year by union members in the NHS in Glasgow.
There is considerable potential for a national campaign that could
cause embarrassment, not only to Sodexho, but ultimately to the
Government itself for pursuing this demeaning measure against some
of the poorest and most vulnerable in society.
George Binette,
CDAS and Camden Unison co-convenor (personal capacity)
