STRUGGLING CLEANERS who work at the Department of Education are planning to go on strike for a second time to demand a pay rise to the London national living wage. 

Hundreds of staff who are battling to make ends meet say they cannot afford to pay their skyrocketing energy bills, monthly rent and feed their children amid the cost to live squeeze. 

The cleaners, who are being supported by trade union United Voices of the World (UVW), gave their bosses at ISS Limited UK till the 8th January to reply.

They warned members would instruct UVW to declare a dispute and issue a notice of intention to ballot for industrial action if a response was not given. 

Concerns

The company did reply, but failed to directly address their concerns and did not enter into negotiations despite pleas from members, prompting likely strike action from the workers. 

Kadijatu Jalloh, a cleaner for the DfE, told The Voice that working conditions are “deteriorating day-by-day” for her and other workers. 

‘We are dying silently in the building. They don’t treat us cleaners like human beings, they treat us like rats. They don’t know how to talk to people. Since this complaint was made, no one came to address us. Nobody came, nobody talked to us. They just sent a pamphlet with the terms and conditions. We are not happy at all. How can you pay your rent? How can you pay your bills? When they are not paying you correctly,” she said. 

The underpaid cleaners are employed by ISS who are a part of the Government Property Agency (GPA) Contract. The DfE enlist them to clean their Sanctuary Buildings with the understanding they were entitled to the same employee benefits as civil servants when they were outsourced.

Parity

The UVW and its members, who are mainly from Black and ethnic minority backgrounds,  say the DfE can resolve this dispute by bringing the cleaners in-house to ensure parity with the civil servants they clean up after, which includes equal sick pay and annual leave entitlement.

Strikers are also calling for appropriate staffing levels as they have been forced to pick up exhausting extra hours as well as union recognition.

Since a management change in November, the workers have claimed that problems have only worsened with some even struggling to receive the correct amount of back payments. 

The cleaners are demanding their wages be increased to the new London Living Wage in the January payroll and this rise be backdated to November 2023. 

Kadijatu, who has worked at the government department for 23 years, said she was once paid just £288 for a month’s work. 

The desperate mother-of-three says she and other colleagues are “confused” by the state of their jobs.

Dialogue

“We don’t know what’s going on. No one came to the building [where we work] to address us. No one talks, no manager has made a meeting…so we just say to go on strike, and we go on strike until they bring dialogue to the table,” she said.

Margaret*, who has worked as a cleaner at the company for 20 years, says she is “frustrated” by the way she and others have been treated. 

“I have bills I have to pay. I have gas bills, electricity bills and all those things. I went to EE [my mobile phone provider] to cancel the contract I have with them,” she told The Voice. 

“We fight every day of our lives. How can the money that we are getting change all of a sudden, if we are not getting a pay rise? Instead of [the pay] going up, it is going backwards.”

Margaret said that on one is talking to the staff about the working conditions and the three managers available accuse workers of “attacking them” and are “very rude” if they raise their concerns.

She added: “I’m trying to manage life. So normally, I have to work and don’t need any stress. But this thing is stressing me out because if I want to talk,  I don’t know who to talk to. They [the managers] act like we are troublesome.”

The UVW and its members already went on strike in the summer of 2023, but a lack of progress from officials has led the desperate cleaners to threaten yet another strike.

Petros Elia, general secretary for UVW, said: “Our members are a vital part of the DfE team, without our members working hard to keep the buildings safe and clean, the department would cease to function. They want the same terms and conditions of everyone else working in the building.

Pressure

“Reasonable entitlement to sick leave removes the psychological pressure and precarity that falling ill can cause workers, particularly when they have families to provide for, as all our members have. “

“Our members have decades and decades of cumulative experience cleaning Sanctuary buildings. They know every inch of the building inside out and can do every aspect of the job blindfolded. Allow them to do their jobs with reasonable levels of staffing so they can maintain the high standard of cleanliness and safety they have consistently delivered in their roles over many years.”

A spokesperson from the GPA said: “These staff members are employed by an external contractor and are not directly employed by the government. The contracts referenced are owned by the Government Property Agency, not by DfE.

“The Government Property Agency ensures contractors abide by current employment legislation. It encourages contractors and the union to cooperate to resolve the dispute.”

In a message to the government, Kadijatu added: “They have to respect cleaners. We are mothers. We have children. We are cleaners, we are doing a remarkable job.”

The Department of Education declined The Voice’s request for comment.

*Name changed to protect identity