A union has described working conditions in Police Scotland stations as akin to "19th century mills" due to the treatment of outsourced staff.
As previously told in The Herald, cleaning, janitorial and security staff are employed by Atalian Servest, a multinational private firm awarded a five-year £75 million contract in January.
Members of the GMB Scotland union working in police offices across Scotland could take industrial action for the first time if the dispute is not resolved, the union said.
READ MORE: Controversial Bibby Stockholm charter company speaks out
A spokesperson said its members would be balloted regarding industrial action but will first be holding a second protest outside police headquarters at Clyde Gateway.
Since Atalian Servest took over the contract from Churchill, it is claimed, members have been raised a litany of issues relating to pay and conditions.
GMB Organiser John Slaven said: "It has been an unmitigated disaster since Atalian Servest won the contract.
"Police Scotland's tender process has not been fit for purpose.
"Police stations are sensitive areas that require high levels of expertise to run a complex service.
"The service to the police and the treatment of our members have both been deplorable."
Union organisers claim issues include the use of agency staff in police stations who have lower levels of security clearance; failure to give parity of pay with staff directly employed by Police Scotland; failure to provide proper ID cards; and a series of pay and overtime issues.
A Janitor employed in a police station just outside Glasgow said: "I have been employed in police stations for 23 years and we have never experienced anything like it. "They simply do not know what they are doing and are treating us like dirt. "The service in the police stations is suffering, morale is rock bottom and serving police officers are appalled at our treatment. "There is not a single worker who does not want to see the back of Atalian Servest."
GMB Scotland has also claimed that Atalian Servest has refused to go to ACAS to discuss ways to provide proper workers representation across the contract. As a result, GMB Scotland has written to the justice minister Angela Constance asking her to intervene.
The Herald tried repeatedly to contact Atalian Servest but was passed to the company's HR department where the line merely rang out.
Mr Slaven GMB added: "Atalian Servest is behaving like a 19th century mill owner.
READ MORE: Sneak who leaked Elena Whithorn's WhatsApps is the villian
"They are anti-union, plain and simple, and do not want their workers to have a say or a voice. "It is as simple as that, which is why the Scottish Government and Police Scotland need to intervene.
"This is a public contract and Fair Work Principles should apply."
A Police Scotland spokesperson reissued a statement it has given to The Herald on two previous occasions and did not answer a direction question about the outcome of the meeting mentioned.
The force said: "Atalian Servest was appointed following a procurement process in accordance with our statutory obligations.
"These staff concerns were brought to our attention and in accordance with our commitment to Fair Work practices.
"Police Scotland has met with all representatives and staff and will continue to do so to seek resolution.”
Atalian Servest's contract with Police Scotland requires it to provide cleaning services at 450 Police Scotland buildings.
The company, which was awarded security and facilities management contracts during COP26, pays most cleaning staff less than the living wage of £10.90 per hour.
Alatalian Servest sold off its Asia, Ireland and UK operations in March to private investment firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice.
The private equity firm was ranked 18th in Private Equity International's PEI 300 ranking of the largest private equity firms in the world.
Clayton Dubilier & Rice had previously bought over OCS Group, and Atalian Servest and OCS are currently in the process of being merged, creating a single company with a combined turnover in excess of £2 billion.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here