The Public Sector's dirty secret

Blair McPherson

The senior management team were experimenting with an open plan office. Senior managers were often still at a hot desk when others had gone home. So the cleaner had to clean round us. Our regular was a young girl called Helen. She told us her mother got her the job, her mother and father both worked as cleaners here in head office. She still lived at home.We progressed beyond "hello" to receive regular up dates on her driving lessons and through out the summer we shared in the build up to her holiday in Mexico. I mention this in view of a recent study by the Equality and Human Rights Commission ,The In invisible Workforce : Outsourcing and Employment in the Cleaning Sector. Most of us know very little about how our offices are cleaned and by whom. As long as there is soap in the washbasin, toilet role in the toilet and the wast bins have been emptied we have other things to think about. Many people never see the office cleaners because they work at night when staff have gone home or early morning before the majority arrive in work. But whether they work at night or early morning,in an office or on a ward, in the private sector or Public sector they will work for an agency ; office cleaning having long since been outsourced. The study tells us that cleaners are under paid, mistreated and face the sack if they speak up.

Cleaners interviewed were often paid below the minimum wage, given unrealistic workloads and often taken advantage of by employers who failed to make them aware of their employment rights. Cleaners complained of being ignored, abused and bullied. "We get no respect or support from our supervisors and the ward staff shout at us. This is because we are not regarded as human beings. We are afraid to complain in case we are sacked," said a female Czech agency cleaner, working in healthcare. Another reported that "we are seen as thick cleaners" yet many are well educated forced to take this type of work because we are immigrants. Cleaners report feeling their work is unappreciated which doesn't surprise me but you might have thought that in a hospital cleanliness and hygiene would have a higher value.

The study highlights that outsourcing as away of reducing costs is often at the expense of good employment practice but we know this and chose to blame the agencies. But if one group of workers in the Public sector is denied fairness, dignity and respect then what value does the Public sector really place on these values. If cutting cost is more important than treating cleaners fairly then presumable cutting costs is more important than treating health and social care workers fairly. If we are prepared to tolerate a lack of respect and dignity towards cleaners is it a surprise that some staff show a lack of respect and dignity to older patients or people with a learning disability. You can't claim to be promoting a culture of fairness, dignity and respect for all except cleaners!

Blair McPherson author of An Elephant in the Room - about equality and diversity www.blairmcpherson.co.uk

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