NOBODY said making millions of pounds would be easy and, with the daily threat of physical abuse and racial slurs, Camden’s parking wardens certainly work hard for the £2million they earn the Town Hall each month. 

But, as 130 of the outsourced workers enter a second wave of strike action in a dispute over a 58p-an-hour pay rise, they are adamant that their work is undervalued. 

“I don’t think it’s too much to ask, for the job we do,” one warden told the New Journal on the picket line yesterday (Wednesday) outside their base in Regis Road, Kentish Town. “We’re out there every day, whatever the weather. You get people being assaulted every day, more or less. The racial abuse is every day. It takes its toll.” 

They have been locked in a long-running row over pay with contractor NSL, and the seven-day walkout follows an appeal for help to a meeting of all Camden councillors last week. They were turned away empty-handed and told to “get back around the table” with NSL. 

VIDEO: Traffic wardens on strike in Kentish Town today. They are asking for a pay rise to £9.50 https://t.co/b9M3OBIYgF

— Camden New Journal (@NewJournal) September 23, 2015

Councillors were told last week that, alongside helping to bring in £19million profit for NSL, parking wardens earned the council a surplus of £24million from parking fines last year, which can be used to pay for things like road resurfacing and the pensioners’ Freedom Pass. 

>>> A day in the life: 'racial slurs, verbal abuse and physical threats' <<<

It was the third time in six months that convenors from Camden Unison had lobbied the Town Hall on behalf of workers em­ployed, albeit indirectly, by the council who are earning less than the Living Wage 

In 2012, council leader Sarah Hayward raised the Living Wage flag and declared that new contracts would be issued only to firms paying the higher rate – but existing contractors are free to continue paying below. 

The parking wardens’ pleas received some sympathy from councillors at the Town Hall, with Labour’s Sue Vincent describing their rate of pay as “despicable” and calling for the council to “explore any avenue possible that we can withdraw from this unfair contract with NSL”. 

Green councillor Sian Berry added her support. “It concerns me that they should have to negotiate each time to get the London Living Wage,’ she said. “This is something that should happen automatically. We certainly shouldn’t have to be supplementing the contract in order for that to happen.”

A four-month campaign fought by dinner ladies and backed by the New Journal was won in June and, as of the beginning of the school year earlier this month, all staff employed in school kitchens by private operator Caterlink will receive £9.15 an hour as a minimum – an increase of 38 per cent from just £6.60. Meanwhile, Shaw Healthcare, which has a 30-year contract with the council, is under pressure to increase care workers’ pay from £7.53 an hour. 

But it is feared by some that a simmering level of animosity towards parking wardens from aggrieved drivers will mean the council will face less pressure – due to less public sympathy – to support their plight.

Cllr Berry said: “The dinner ladies won their fight because of their hard work and their campaigning. They do an amazing job. But the parking wardens aren’t working any less hard and it would be a shame if they got less support just because the council think parking wardens are less popular than dinner ladies.” 

Ahead of the strike, Cllr Meric Apak, who, as cabinet member for sustainability and environment, is in charge of the contract, said that “the best place for settling industrial disputes is around a table negotiating”. 

He added: “Entrenched positions at these negotiations are not helpful to resolving such disputes. If NSL management were here in this chamber I would say exactly the same to them. We have been pressing NSL and we shall continue to do so.”

Camden Unison, who are negotiating on behalf of their members, had initially called for £10.50 an hour which was scaled back to £9.50. An offer of £9.27 from NSL was “overwhelmingly rejected” by union members last month. A spokesman for the company said: “We are disappointed that a generous, above-inflation and above London Living Wage pay deal has been rejected twice by Unison, and that further action is now planned.”