In offices across London, there are workforces that begin their shift just as the highly paid bankers and professionals go home, with teams of cleaners coming in overnight to prepare the offices for the next business day. Cleaning is big business and labour exploitation in this sector is prevalent. Cleaners earn little, work difficult shifts and are often not paid or are required to work in unsafe conditions.1Employee earnings in the UK: 2019, ONS, 29 October 2019; Damian Grimshaw et al, Coming clean: contractual and procurement practices, Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) research report 96, summer 2014; Nahir de la Silva, Lucila Granada and Dolores Modern, The unheard workforce: experiences of Latin American migrant women in cleaning, hospitality and domestic work, Latin American Women’s Rights Service, July 2019; The invisible workforce: employment practices in the cleaning sector, EHRC findings report, August 2014; Hard work, hidden lives, TUC Commission on Vulnerable Employment, May 2008. As FLEX (Focus on Labour Exploitation) reported recently, 81 per cent of cleaners in elementary cleaning occupations are women.2‘If I could change anything about my work …’: participatory research with cleaners in the UK, FLEX, January 2021, page 12. Ethnic minorities make up 42 per cent of the London cleaning workforce and migrant workers make up 53 per cent of its cleaning workforce.3Ibid. As at March 2017, general building cleaning employed more than 342,000 workers across approximately 8,000 enterprises and generated an annual revenue of around £5.6bn.4Ibid. See further Cleaning activity enterprises, ONS, 12 April 2018.

There are many challenges to improving working conditions for these vulnerable people. They are often unaware of their employment rights, not least because many of them come from countries that have very different legal systems. Even when they are aware of their rights, there are significant barriers to pursuing access to justice. A key problem is the dearth of high-quality and affordable employment law advice and casework support. Frequently, these workers rely on informal sources for information, such as WhatsApp and Facebook groups. Advice can be well-intentioned but incorrect. Much worse is the fact that these sources of advice can lead to further exploitation. ELAN members have reported some purported advisers approaching vulnerable workers to obtain their confidential data, taking money upfront and then disappearing.

Good-quality legal advice and support can make a huge difference. Charlotte Bryce is an employment lawyer at Hammersmith & Fulham Law Centre. She represented Mr X, a cleaning manager working in a London office building. He was dismissed over three years ago following the transfer of the office building’s cleaning contract between two companies. Mr X and his colleagues were called to a meeting and told that their employment was transferring. An arrangement was made for Mr X and two other colleagues to continue working while the other employees were temporarily sent home. Those who continued working, including Mr X, were then told that they had ‘objected’ to their employment transferring and that they were no longer employed by either company. They were not paid redundancy pay, notice pay or accrued but untaken holiday pay. Over the next two weeks, their other colleagues were dismissed and paid redundancy payments.

With legal representation from the Law Centre, and after long delays, Mr X was successful in a number of claims relating to the breach of his employment rights and awarded in excess of £20,000. The employment judge also made an order that compensation be paid to any other colleagues who were dismissed during this transfer. These orders were for the failure of the new cleaning company to inform and consult on the transfer of employment or comply with collective consultation awards. Charlotte now represents eight of Mr X’s colleagues in pursuing this compensation. She says:

Charlotte is delighted to achieve such positive outcomes for Mr X, although enforcement of these judgments is not always straightforward. She suggests that anyone with a client in a similar situation should take information about the client’s colleagues from the outset of a case. It is much harder to find them several years later.

Some of these colleagues were members of a union but, although they were provided with initial advice, it was not followed through. ELAN and the not-for-profit sector as a whole are very keen to build relationships and work collaboratively to improve prospects of accessing justice.

Mr X’s story had a positive outcome but we can, and should, do more to bring an end to such employment law abuses in the first place. These cleaners are working in our courtrooms, hospitals, law firms, accountancy offices and more. Most of these workplaces are committed to good working practices for their employees. We all need to ask questions, ensure standards are met and take responsibility for protecting the most vulnerable of workers from exploitation, particularly when their services are outsourced.