OTHER NEWS
EVERY SECOND COUNTS – MANY BRITS FIRM BELIEVERS IN ‘THREE
SECOND RULE’ An overwhelming number of Britons are putting their health at risk by believing they can eat food that has been on the floor.
A survey of 1,009 UK adults by
DiscountFlooringDepot.co.uk revealed that 39% believe the ‘three second rule’ protects them from harmful bacteria. The popular myth suggests food that has been dropped on the floor is safe to eat provided it is picked up within three seconds.
The survey revealed that 53% incorrectly believe that it is the length of time that food has been on the floor that effects how contaminated food will be.
An overwhelming 81% of British adults admit to having consumed food that has been on the floor.
However just 17% said they had done so in public, with 64% saying they
HMRC CLEANERS IN STRIKE ACTION
OVER NLW Last month, cleaners working at HMRC offices in Merseyside resorted to strike action in a battle to be paid the new National Living Wage (NLW).
Thirty workers employed by ISS to clean the buildings argued that despite the mandatory increase in the hourly wage rage, which from April this year was set at £7.20 an hour, they are not seeing any benefit as their employer offset any potential increase by cutting workers’ hours.
HMRC is the government department responsible for enforcing the NLW, yet most of its cleaners are on ‘poverty wages’ according to the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), while several qualify for benefits in the form of working tax credits.
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had done it in the privacy of their own homes.
When quizzed on why they had done so, 39% said it was because their floors were clean, 26% said they didn’t want to have to cook again, and 19% thought the food looked clean and safe to eat.
This is despite the fact that 9% of Brits admitted they believed consuming food that had been on the floor had made them ill.
Andrew Nesbitt, Marketing Manager at
DiscountFlooringDepot.co.uk said: “It’s shocking how many are happy to consume food off the floor. The research suggests that as many as 81% have potentially ingested
Martin Kelsey, PCS Group Secretary, claimed that ISS had made ‘cynical mathematical calculations to avoid allowing some of their lowest paid workers the meagre benefit arising from the new NLW.
He said: “They are a multinational corporate making hundreds of millions of profit a year, refusing to pay a few people on absolute poverty wages a few pence an hour more.” The union added that the cut in hours has left workers under pressure to do more for less and unable to deliver a proper service.
A spokesperson from the HMRC said: “HMRC greatly appreciates the work cleaning staff do in our buildings. As cleaning staff are employed by an external contractor who set the terms and conditions of their employment, HMRC has no involvement in this process over their pay.”
harmful household bugs that build- up on floors and surfaces, such as salmonella and
E.coli.
“We do recommend that our customers should mop hard flooring once a week to reduce and remove bacteria build up and disinfect surfaces.”
Men are more likely to consume food that has been on the floor than women, with 68% of men are more likely to consume food that had been dropped on the floor compared to 44% of women.
The cities whose residents are the most likely in the UK to put themselves at risk are Leeds, Plymouth and Birmingham.
However, Maria Eagle, MP for Garson and Halewood said that it was ‘beyond parody’ that the government could not make sure people who cleaned its own offices benefited from the NLW, adding:
policy look more like a propaganda tool than wanting to do something.
“These convoluted arrangements to distance employees from their employer are one of the ways working people have had money drained away from them in the last 20 years.”
Following two days of strike action at the end of July, a statement from ISS said: “ISS has a duty of care towards our staff, as well as a contractual responsibility to the client. As such, we look forward to resuming discussions with our people, and to do so with their PCS trade union representatives and the other key parties involved.”
Tomorrow’s Cleaning August 2016 | 21
“It makes their
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