FEATURE
One Year Later
In August of last year, the Equality and Human Rights Commission published a report looking at employment practices in the cleaning sector called ‘The Invisible Workforce’. Now, almost a year later, Caroline Waters OBE, Deputy Chair of the EHRC tells us what they are doing to improve things.
Last year the Equality and Human Rights Commission published 'The Invisible Workforce', the findings of our examination into employment and outsourcing practices in the cleaning sector. The research covered England, Scotland and Wales, and specifically looked at standardised, non-domestic cleaning in offices, retail, transport, leisure and healthcare.
The cleaning industry is largely made up of women, migrants, part-time and older workers. Many, despite the prevalence of low pay, felt committed to their employer, enjoyed their role and expressed pride in their work. The report, in August 2014, identified a few key areas for further action and I was delighted to be asked to lead a taskforce to offer the support needed to improve the working lives of cleaners. Members were drawn from across the cleaning sector, including cleaning and FM businesses, clients, trade and professional bodies, unions and government bodies such as BIS and HSE.
In an environment where the vast majority of clients outsource cleaning services and where contracts often place cleaning firms under enormous pressure to deliver a high quality service at the lowest cost; responsible procurement practice is essential. The taskforce is working to create guidance to improve procurement practices including advice on contract
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duration, tendering process, contract award criteria, encouraging living wage bids and daytime cleaning, audits, grievance procedures, supplier policies and processes as well as helping cleaners become part of the wider client family and subcontracting.
As many workers, especially migrant workers, told us that they were often unsure about their basic employment rights such as entitlements to holiday or sick pay and felt harassed by processes used to verify their working status, the taskforce is also developing two ‘postcards’ aimed at helping cleaners understand their employment rights and their right to work. There will also be a briefing pack for employers setting out how they can get involved in the campaign and information to support line managers so they have the knowledge and information to advise their people. We believe this will also help address the problems some cleaners experienced with non or late payment of wages, access to grievance polices and the ability to seek redress without fear of losing their job.
With many workers describing themselves as ‘invisible’ and feeling that they were routinely treated differently to others workers and in some cases even harassed and abused, the taskforce felt it was important to promote the contribution that cleaners make to daily life and
to everyone’s experience of work, travel, shopping and healthcare environments. We will also promote the value of cleaning, to explain the significant contribution the cleaning sector makes to our economy, bringing over £8billion of revenue into the UK each year.
Cleaners genuinely don’t understand why they are treated with such little respect and we will launch a campaign encouraging everyone to understand and value the important contribution cleaners make to quality of life in our society. We strongly believe that this is a workforce that deserves the dignity, respect and acknowledgement afforded to any other worker. So while we are doing this I hope we can also make sure that we bring cleaners ‘into the light’. All it takes is a simple acknowledgement, a living wage in exchange for a hard day’s work, a thank you for a job well done, a clean, safe space to change and eat in (hopefully the same one as any other worker in the building) and the simple dignity of being respected for the contribution that makes all of our lives just that little bit better.
That’s why I’m proud to lead this taskforce and why I am so encouraged by the sector’s determination to lift the curtain on an invisible workforce to whom we all owe so much.
www.tomorrowscleaning.com
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