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Article

13 Aug 2014

Author:
Caroline Waters, UK Equality and Human Rights Commission

Blog by Commissioner Caroline Waters (Chair of Cleaning Sector Taskforce) on practices of commercial cleaning industry

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I find it unacceptable that there are employers in the commercial cleaning industry, which brings over £8 billion of revenue to the UK economy each year, who are failing to meet their most basic responsibilities to their workers. Things the rest of us take for granted. Like being paid for the work you do, holiday or sick leave or even having the peace of mind that if someone is treating you badly you can ask your employer for help and get a fair response. It just can't be acceptable that some workers are sacked for complaining about not being paid in full or on time. I'd complain too if it was me; the difference is no-one would dream of treating most of us that way. The non-domestic cleaning workforce...is largely made up of women, migrant, part-time and older workers. Surely these workers have the right to expect to be treated as well as any other worker? Or do we want to be a society that takes advantage of those who don’t know or are too frightened to ask for the things we believe are so important that we enshrined them in not just our Human Rights Framework but our employment law.