{"id":758,"date":"2014-08-14T13:47:23","date_gmt":"2014-08-14T12:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=758"},"modified":"2014-08-15T10:06:48","modified_gmt":"2014-08-15T09:06:48","slug":"invisible-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=758","title":{"rendered":"The invisible workers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Disturbing evidence published by the equality and human rights commission (EHRC) reveals a culture of abuse of the working rights of cleaners in Britain.<\/p>\n

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The report, The Invisible Workforce: Employment practices in the cleaning sector, <\/em>outlines the severe lack of rights cleaning workers are enduring, including under-payment and non-payment of wages, no support for harassment and bullying and fear of being sacked for raising their concerns.<\/p>\n

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Despite the cleaning workforce numbering nearly half a million people and contributing \u00c2\u01418m to the economy, many cleaners said they felt \u00e2\u20ac\u0098invisible\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 at work and are treated as the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098lowest of the low\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 of all employees, leaving them undervalued and overworked, often for the minimum wage of just \u00c2\u01416.31 an hour.<\/p>\n

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Employers are preying on the vulnerabilities of the women, migrant and older workers who make up a large part of the workforce.<\/p>\n

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Language barriers and lack of awareness of employment rights mean migrant workers are often exploited, while some female cleaners reported being threatened with dismissal when they announced their pregnancy, and many older workers expected to perform unrealistic workloads.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jose Villa Vallejo, Unite regional officer, said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bMany workers in this industry are already vulnerable and are often in desperate need of work. Some migrant workers have fled to the UK in fear of their lives and will work in these terrible conditions for their family to survive.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAbuse of contractual rights is a disgrace. Respect is integral to equality and cleaners must be treated as human beings.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The commission are calling on clients to make positive changes to improve the working conditions of their cleaners, including raising wages to the living wage \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00c2\u01417.60 and \u00c2\u01418.80 in London.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The equality and human rights commissioner, Caroline Waters, said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bFairness, dignity and respect are values we all share. Cleaners do physically hard work and often take great pride in their jobs, but many felt that they were not appreciated or afforded the dignity and respect shown to others in the workplace.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey may be bullied by supervisors, have problems with their pay, and have excessive workloads. This can often be linked to a focus on reducing costs at the expense of good practice in employment and contracting.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Increasingly, the cleaning sector has become an outsourcing industry and the introduction of these competitive markets has led to a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdownward pressure on wages and working conditions\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, according to the report.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With inflation soaring at 1.9 per cent, three times more than the rate of earnings, for many there is no alternative but to let private companies like these cleaning firms exploit them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unemployment figures may show a decline, but the reality is that millions of people are forced into accepting low paid and insecure work in the cost of living crisis.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere are so many suffering in this invisible workforce\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Jose said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAlmost one million cleaners are struggling to make ends meet, working for less than the living wage. Unite are committed to supporting these people, helping them to organise so they can change their world.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disturbing evidence published by the equality and human rights commission (EHRC) reveals a culture of abuse of the working rights of cleaners in Britain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[23],"wps_subtitle":"Cleaners treated as lowest of low","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=758"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1439,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758\/revisions\/1439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}