Cleaners and Facilities Branch Organiser

Organizadorx de la Rama Limpieza y Otros Servicios (Job Listing in Spanish)

We are excited to be hiring a Branch Organiser to join the Cleaners and Facilities Branch of the IWGB. We encourage applications from anyone who is enthusiastic and wants to support precarious workers.

Who we are

The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) is a bold and dynamic union which consists of mainly low paid, migrant and/or precarious workers, such as outsourced cleaners and security guards, workers in the so-called “gig economy”, such as cycling instructors and Uber drivers, and foster care workers.

The role

In this role, you will be working at the cutting edge of the trade union movement in Britain, organising in unorganised workplaces and taking on rogue employers to fight for equality, dignity and respect.

The Cleaners and Facilities branch is one of the IWGB’s first branches and was formed in 2012. It is the union’s biggest branch and is made up of cleaners and other facilities staff working in a number of different sectors in London, including hospitality, hotels, healthcare, local government, schools, offices. Many branch members are Latin American and this is a strong element of the branch culture, with many parties with plentiful empanadas and salsa. But the branch also includes workers from every part of the world speaking many different languages.

The branch has a proud track record of fighting and winning campaigns for better pay and better working conditions, from campaigns to win the living wage at employers like Ernst & Young and Anabels, to ending outsourcing at Southwark Council and London Bridge Hospital.

You’ll be joining the branch at an exciting time where the branch is aiming to build on this strong base and support more members to organise their workplaces, build power and fight to win improvements, as well as building up more members as organisers and leaders within the branch. Your focus will be on building organisation and power in a number of priority workplaces, and developing and supporting active members who can organise and lead their own campaigns, as well as supporting other projects to strengthen organisation in the branch.

You will be part of the organising team in the IWGB union – working alongside and reporting to a Senior Organiser. You will also work closely with the elected representatives of the CFB committee. Occasional evening and weekend work may be needed, normally one or two evenings a week and one or two Saturdays a month, which can be reclaimed as Time Off In Lieu.

The role is fixed term for one year and is for 3 days (21 hours) per week. We aim to extend the role permanently after this time. We are also aiming to increase the hours to 35 hours per week when we are able to.

We are open to discussing a mutually beneficial working pattern with the right candidate. The role is based in London and will involve a mix of in-the-field working and work in our London office.

We extend a warm welcome to all applicants, with a special emphasis on those who come from underrepresented backgrounds. We strongly encourage individuals from racial or ethnic minorities, women and people from marginalised genders to apply.

Duties will include:

• To build density and collective organisation in priority workplaces, including through:
• identifying and building up active members and influential workers who can in turn recruit and organise others.
• Supporting the formation and development of workplace organising committees and rep committees.
• organising workplace union meetings and open meetings to recruit and organise members.
• identifying widely-felt, collective issues that can form a basis for recruitment and campaigning, and supporting members to develop and execute plans of action around these issues, from collective grievances to quick turnaround protests through to sustained campaigns.
• To advise and support workplace reps with the planning and execution of strategic campaigns to win transformative changes in priority workplaces.
• To support workplace reps and active members to develop skills and leadership roles in their workplaces and in the branch, including through organising and training sessions.
• To organise members of the branch to take part in union activities such as solidarity at pickets, demonstrations and other union-wide initiatives.
• To liaise regularly with elected branch officials and support elected leaders to enable them to carry out their roles.
• To produce communications to members and the public where relevant to organising activity or where required to fill in for support.
• To assist with some casework and member support where relevant to organising activity or where required to fill in for support.
• To help develop administrative systems which ensure the smooth running of the branch, and provide some administrative support to the branch where relevant to organising activity or where required to fill in for support.
• To record, keep secure and make use of data for organising purposes.
• Any other duties consistent with the post.

This job description is an outline of the key tasks and responsibilities that the postholder is expected to deliver on and is not an exhaustive list. The job may change over time to reflect the changing needs of the Union as well as the personal development needs of the postholder.

Person specification

We’re looking for someone with potential and motivation, so if you don’t have everything on the person specification, but share our values and believe you have what it takes, then please apply!  

Essential

We expect the successful candidate to have:

1. Ability to speak English and Spanish fluently, to a standard sufficient to hold thorough organising conversations in those languages, and to be able to write proficiently in both languages.
2. Ability to build rapport and relationships with workers and motivate them to take action. Comfortable spending a lot of time speaking with people.
3. Ability to make a plan and follow through with it.
4. Understanding core principles of trade unionism, such as that we need to fight in order to win changes at work, belief in equality and justice, etc.
5. Self-motivation, perseverance, and ability to prioritise and make decisions in an unstructured environment.
6. Ability to learn quickly, and keenness to develop and educate yourself.
7. Ability to keep boundaries and look after yourself and those you are organising with, when doing stressful work.

Desirable

It would be advantageous for the successful candidate to have:

1. Experience of organising your own workplace or supporting others to do so.
2. Experience of organising protests, strikes or other forms of collective action.
3. Experience of supporting others to take on leadership roles, and supporting people and groups to make plans together and organise around shared concerns.
4. Ability to speak Portuguese fluently.
5. A knowledge of Employment Law sufficient to ensure that employers honour their legal obligations and members secure their legal rights.
6. Experience working as a cleaner or a similar job.
   

Pay and annual leave

• Annual salary of £29,393.00 (35 hours per week) prorated to £17,635.80 (21 hours per week). Salary will be adjusted in line with any London Living Wage uplifts
• Generous leave entitlement of 30 days annual leave per year not including bank holidays (prorated for part time staff)
• We believe in pay parity so everyone at IWGB earns the same hourly rate of pay

Benefits

• Flexibility around working patterns and hours
• Hybrid working options (dependant on position)
• High employer pension contributions: 6% employee-paid and 13% employer-paid pension
• Equal maternity and paternity pay enhancements for parents

How to apply:

You can download an application form from the ‘Work with us’ page of our website. Please send your completed application form with the subject “Branch Organiser (C&F Branch) job application” to applications@iwgb.co.uk by 12 noon on Wednesday 8th May 2024 . Please let us know in your email where you have seen our advertisement so we can improve our hiring processes.

Who is the IWGB?

Founded in August of 2012, the IWGB now consists of 12 branches. The branches are highly autonomous and lead on campaigning for better pay and conditions in their industry. IWGB campaigns are known for being bold, vibrant, loud and effective. In addition to campaigning, the IWGB’s Legal department is also highly active, providing representation on a range of employment matters such as disciplinary processes, grievances, private hire licensing, and employment tribunals. The IWGB organises social events for members, Spanish and English classes, and holds regular meetings where members can engage and feed into policy. We are a democratic organisation with all officials being regularly elected.

As an organisation that fights for workers’ rights, we strongly believe no applicant or employee should face discrimination or harassment based on their gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability status, age, or marital/domestic partner status. You can read more in the IWGB Statement of Inclusivity. Please let us know if you have any requirements for interview.

Above all, we’re looking for someone with empathy and the determination to support workers who fight for better conditions.

The interview process:

We like to be open and up front with what our hiring process looks like so people know what to expect. Please see below the typical steps in our recruitment process.

Review candidates

Once the advertisement has been taken down, a shortlist of candidates will be selected by the hiring committee to proceed to the next steps. All candidates will be informed of their application outcome within two weeks of the closing date, whether or not they’re proceeding to the next stage.

Remote interviews

Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed via Zoom by a panel of IWGB elected officials and/or staff. Candidates will be interviewed by the same panel to ensure consistency.

Following these interviews, it is possible that there will be a second stage of interviews.

Offer stage

The hiring committee will convene with the goal of selecting and making an offer to one of the candidates. We will offer feedback to people who were interviewed but not selected.