WRITTEN EVIDENCE
SUBMITTED BY
CAMERON WAUCHOPE
[OS 11]
I am writing to you today in your capacity as a member
of the Home Affairs Select Committee, specifically in preparation
for your two hearings into the Olympic Security scandal due to
take place on 4 September and 11 September respectively. I am
writing to complain about the way G4S handled its employees and
applicants, and want to make you aware of various issues surrounding
this situation of which you might not already be aware.
I am part of a campaign that has gathered together
hundreds of people who have been mistreated and abused by the
G4S employment process. We were left jobless, out of pocket, treated
without the most basic of human respects, all the while watching
G4S claim it did not have enough staff to manage the Olympics.
The way they have treated many hard working and hopeful British
citizens is disgraceful and we felt it was time to act. That is
why we started our campaign (which can be found here; http://www.facebook.com/groups/249251515177229/).
Our main action as a group has been to construct
an open letter to the G4S board of directors, a copy of which
is attached for your consideration (Annex A). In it we highlight
the many ways in which G4S has maltreated us, which are numerous
and appalling. While the bulk of the coverage of the G4S shambles
was (understandably) on the greater issue of security being compromised,
that does not mean we should let G4S off the hook for what they
have done and how they have treated hundreds of hard working and
enthusiastic Britons. The letter was received this Wednesday (22
August 2012) by the directors of the company.
We have had many successes as a group. Our Facebook
group is on track to reach 500 members (just one month after its
foundation), we have been mentioned by a number of news sources
(including among others The Guardian, the BBC and the Evening
Standard) and very early on one of our members even had correspondence
read out by your committee during your initial questions of Nick
Buckles and Ian Horseman-Sewell (actually read out by you yourself,
for which many of us were incredibly grateful. To see someone
taking such an interest in our problem, especially early on, was
a huge boost to our campaign, at the time when it most needed
it). We have a level of momentum, momentum we are keen to use
to try to get G4S to answer for their incompetences and failings.
August 2012
ANNEX A
AN OPEN LETTER OF COMPLAINT TO G4S CONCERNING
EMPLOYMENT FOR OLYMPIC SECURITY FROM THOSE DIRECTLY AND BADLY
EFFECTED BY THEIR FAILINGS
http://www.facebook.com/groups/249251515177229/
To the Board of Directors of G4S plc
20 August 2012
Dear Sir or Madam,
We are writing to you today as people who were successful
applicants to and employees of your company for your Olympic project,
to complain about your treatment of us. We applied to G4S in good
faith and were ready, enthusiastic and able to take up what were
very important roles for us personally and professionally, with
the added bonus of serving our country and cities for the Olympic
Games. G4S in return has let us down and treated us very poorly.
The way we have been treated has been unprofessional,
callous and unacceptable for any company, much less a publicly
listed one. Amongst the specific and personal complaints of those
who have consented to be parties to this letter, common and significant
ones were:
¾ Promising
us jobs then not delivering them due to your failings (most notably
a failure to organise training for many vetted applicants).
¾ When
you became aware of your inability to succeed in your task, failing
to communicate with us as individuals to tell us we did not have
jobs, letting us find out via the media and the "FAQs"
section of your website.
¾ Costing
us any opportunity of other employment by revoking job offers
only at the very last moment (some of us even having turned down
alternate work).
¾ Withdrawing
our applications to the programme without our consent or knowledge
(even claiming it was our decision).
¾ Setting
impossible time constraints or hurdles for us during the process,
then revoking job offers when these could not be passed.
¾ Not
providing work even when we were successfully trained, licensed
and vetted.
¾ Providing
roles in geographical areas for which we had not applied, meaning
we could not attend the job you "provided".
¾ Not
providing promised accommodation, leaving us unable to work.
¾ Not
delivering, as promised, valuable SIA training, costing us future
employment also.
¾ Failing
to deliver SIA licenses even after training was passed, leaving
us unable to work.
¾ Calling
us up for training or work, causing us to spend time and money
attending, before revealing we had not passed vetting or training
and so had to be sent home.
¾ Not
paying for job training when you subsequently decided you did
not need us, despite the promise of travel expenses AND a wage
for the training period.
¾ Retaining
valuable documents (driving licenses, passports) for months even
once vetting had been passed.
¾ Promising
deadlines for you to provide services (for training, vetting,
even for simple contact) and consistently failing to meet them.
¾ Ignoring
emails and not responding to our queries by phone.
¾ Providing
invalid emails for us to contact, leaving us in the dark.
¾ Deleting
or removing our ability to post from your Facebook page when we
queried or complained, despite us obeying the rules, further limiting
our access to information.
¾ Leaving
us on hold on your "helpline" for hours, and bouncing
us from call centre to call centre, at our expense.
¾ Having
call centre staff not equipped to deal with the common queries,
often giving contradictory answers or misinformation, contradicting
yourselves, even stating falsehoods as fact.
¾ Dealing
with problems by constantly assuring us to be patient and await
contact revealing the next step—contact which never came.
¾ Last,
but by no means least, as a result of your incompetence and disastrous
"Just in Time" employment and training policy, robbing
hundreds of the pride and honour of serving their home city and
country on the greatest stage in the world.
As you can see, there are many ways in which G4S'
actions or lack of action have negatively affected us. In redress,
we request:
¾ That
G4S publicly acknowledge these failings and apologise for your
treatment of us.
¾ That
G4S directly contact all individuals involved to confirm their
status and apologise once more personally.
¾ That
G4S return all sensitive personal documents (eg, driving licenses,
passports) immediately, as well as copies of the CRB checks carried
out.
¾ That
G4S destroy all record of sensitive information we provided in
preparation for employment (bank details, employment history).
¾ That
G4S provide compensation to all concerned for costs incurred for
time and money spent to attend interviews or training (including
wages due) or the lengthy phone calls made to clear this up, and
for the cost of lost opportunities (eg other employment) your
sudden decision to revoke employment has put upon us (costing
individuals thousands of pounds in some cases).
For your information, we have forwarded copies of
this letter to the Home Affairs Committee in Parliament, and some
of our members have forwarded copies to their specific Members
of Parliament. We have also sent it to various interested media
groups.
We look forward to hearing from you on these issues,
Yours faithfully
The Undersigned
| Ilia Abdullah | Maria de Fatima da Silva Lima
|
| Osman Afzal | Calum Lodes |
| Juhed Ahmad | Vassilios Magkourilos
|
| Ali Alizadeh | Dylan Joseph Mallett
|
| Crystal B Allen | Jaspriya Marwaha
|
| Carol Ann Ashworth | Roisin Suzanne McCormack
|
| Emma Astley | Natalie McGovern
|
| Mohammed Banyhamin | Scott Merrifield
|
| Terence S Bebbington | Ferdous Miah
|
| Stephanie Belinger | Charlie Miles
|
| John bird | Paul Melville |
| Thomas Birdsell | Sameer Mohammad
|
| Graham Broadley | Ryan Moncur
|
| Mark Bullock | Nigel Morris
|
| Valdemar Burbo | Ibrahim Murad
|
| Ian Cameron | Simon Mutibwa
|
| Alexander MacKinnon Campbell | Burhan Nazim
|
| Glen Carrigan | Howard Michael O'Brien
|
| Imtiaz Chowdhury | Ajose Olayiwola
|
| Iain Cameron Christie | Rishab K OSwal
|
| Ruari Alexander Clark | Leonardo Pagliuso
|
| Scott Coleman | Rekha Bharat Panwar
|
| Jason Cooper | Ryland Pearson-McManus
|
| Laura-Duthie Coupar | Ewelina Peczek
|
| Christopher Cox | Beryl Phala
|
| Joseph Craven | Laura Pike |
| Mhairi de Sainte Croix | Priyanka Pithia
|
| Ty Croshaw | Anthony Pitt |
| Claire Cursley | Martyn Pugh
|
| Abbadatu Dauda | William Round
|
| Paula Deacon | Alice Rowland
|
| Sayenna Deagan | Harsimran Sandhu
|
| Giles Denney | Frankie Shrieves
|
| Helen Dickinson | Dave Smith
|
| Angela Duncan | Daniel Soile
|
| Paul J Durden | Dean Stubbins
|
| Ekeisha Edet | John Glenville Taylor
|
| Sarah J Ellaway | Lucie Thompson
|
| David Ellis | Wesley Thomson
|
| James Faulks | Rodrigo Otavio Faria Torniai
|
| Lucy Forward | Ming Chi Andy Tsoi
|
| Jenny Goodwin | Katy Turgoose
|
| Christopher Gore | Paulius Vaitkunas
|
| Corey Hanson | Peter Valente
|
| Syed Emran Hassan | Emma Vincent
|
| Daniel Herbert | Philip Watson
|
| Rachel Howorth | Cameron Iain Myhill Wauchope
|
| Neil Hughes | Janet Weatherall
|
| Mohammed Zafor Sadiq Hussain | Sam Wise
|
| Basharat Iqbal | George William
|
| Sam Ingelbrecht | John White
|
| Anna Johnstone | Tom Wilson
|
| Anthony Jones | Tom Windsor
|
| Roger Jones | Dan Woodward |
| Christine Kerr | Hannah Wright
|
| Aran Kharpal | Justin Zannini
|
| Konrad Robert Krupa | |
| Matt Lenton | |
—— END ——
| 
