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Unions around the world are taking action today to highlight the mistreatment of security workers in Poland by multinational financial giant Citigroup.



Citigroup is one of many banks receiving billions of dollars worth of assistance from American taxpayers in the wake of the financial crisis. But the bank itself does not show sufficient generosity to pay its own security guards a living wage.



The average Citigroup guard in Poland earns only USD2 per hour. After working a 12-hour day most guards then work additional fee-for-task jobs in order to supplement their inadequate income. With such low wages, guards have to work an average of 360 hours a month in order to provide for their families. This means suffering sleep deprivation, increasing health and safety risks in an already dangerous job and denying workers the opportunity for a family life. All this while Citigroup’s CEO was awarded USD27 million in stock options earlier this year.



Security workers throughout Poland are fighting for modest improvements through collective bargaining. The key employers in the security industry are refusing to engage in bargaining. We are calling on the clients of security employers in Poland, including Citigroup, to encourage their contractors to behave responsibly by allowing workers to bargain collectively for better wages and conditions.



Poland is not the only country where workers at Citigroup are fighting to exercise their basic human rights in the workplace. The bank has been criticised by UNI for refusing to enter a global dialogue in the face of criticisms of its labour policies.



UNI Property Services and its affiliates in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas are supporting Polish guards in their struggle for justice. On 22 October, unions will distribute leaflets at Citigroup offices in Hong Kong, Sydney, London, Paris, Brussels, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Geneva, Madrid, Frankfurt, Dublin, Chicago and Panama demanding a fair deal for security workers.



“Workers everywhere deserve decent pay and time with their families,” according to Tom Balanoff, President of UNI Property Services.



Philip Jennings, General-Secretary of UNI Global Union, said “How ironic that a bank which has received a multibillion dollar tax payer-funded bailout that has paid its leaders extravagant salaries is now found to be complicit in poverty pay practices.”