Kingdom Services Group has confirmed that it is aware of outstanding pension contributions owed to school cleaners in Solihull and is working with the West Midlands Pension Fund (WMPF) to resolve these issues “urgently”.

The cleaning contractor confirmed that there was “no intention” on the part of Kingdom to avoid liability in this matter, and that it is working to resolve the administrative problem “promptly and without delay”.

It also explained that there had been “various legal issues” to overcome when the group acquired the contract, adding that it has been in “constant contact” with WMPF throughout.

The update from the group, which acts as a cleaning contractor for Lyndon School in Solihull, follows claims from GMB Union that it had “diverted” three years’ worth of payments from school cleaners’ retirement funds.

The union argued that the group had failed to deposit more than £10,000 into their workers’ pension funds, despite deductions continuing from their pay cheques for more than three years.

The issue was discovered by a dozen workers as part of a routine check while Kingdom Cleaning attempts to sell its contract on to a new firm, according to GMB, which also stated that the new firm had not been informed of the missing funds.

GMB regional organiser, David Warwick, said: “Kingdom Services Group is utterly unscrupulous – they've been pilfering the futures of hard-working staff since January 2018.

“Outsourcing opens up workers to ever-increasing exploitation, and it must be stopped.”

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