Cleaner is instructed to vary her job or die – then one thing unbelievable occurs
When cleaner Sofia Torres began to suffer with health problems, not being able to claim sick pay made her sicker. In 2022, she told the Mirror that being unable to take time off eventually led to her needing an operation.
“We should be valued enough that if we get sick, we can take the time we need to get better, and not feel abandoned,” she said. “That is why we need fair sick pay.” Today, three and a half years later, Sofia is celebrating winning a landmark employment rights campaign. From today, when the Labour government’s Employment Rights Act becomes law, over 10 million workers will get access to Statutory Sick Pay from day one of illness for the first time. A further 1.7 million workers will become eligible for Statutory Sick Pay for the first time.
“I’m very proud about this,” Sofia told me when we spoke this week. “I’ve been campaigning on this with the Safe Sick Pay campaign and the government has listened. This is a mountain we have climbed together. I was working for a cleaning company when I needed surgery. I got no sick pay. I received nothing. I had to ask friends for loans to pay my bills. For a month and a half, I had a sick note but no money to pay for medicines, transport, bills. It was terrible. Now, no-one else will have to go through this experience.”
Sadly, the victory has come too late for one of the campaign’s most determined campaigners, Alan Barton, a medical device engineer who was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2021. When he became ill, he had recently started a new job, so wasn’t entitled to company sick pay.
After time off for surgery, Alan ended up working on and off through chemotherapy and taking out loans. When we last spoke to him and his wife Julie, he was having palliative chemotherapy and facing eviction. “Facing all this, having financial problems is the last thing you need,” he said. Alan passed away last year at the age of 66, after seeing the Employment Rights Bill make it into the King’s Speech. He will never see it come into law, but Julie says he would be rightly proud of the changes.
The new laws will bring in ‘day-one’ rights for protection against unfair dismissal, sick pay, and parental leave, alongside bans on exploitative zero-hour contracts and ‘fire and rehire’ practices. But it is the changes to sick pay that could quietly change the lives of millions. This week, I spoke to a group of cleaners at the pioneering Clean for Good cleaning company in East London – who already enjoy many of the protections because they work for a progressive employer. “When I worked for my previous employer, I was so stressed, my doctor said, ‘if you don’t change your job you will die’,” 65-year-old Rose told me. “My blood pressure was through the roof.
“When I started at Clean for Good, I was very worried because I learned I needed a cataract operation in both eyes. I was shocked when they said they would pay me sick pay. When I was recovering and it was pay day, I woke up early to check my bank account – and the money was there! I was shouting ‘they paid me, they paid me’.”
John, 74, a retired stonemason, also works for Clean for Good. “After I retired, I worked for a big supermarket stacking shelves,” he says. “I ruptured my Achilles dragging cages through the warehouse, but they didn’t pay me any sick pay at all. I had to come back to work with my ankle strapped up because I couldn’t afford to stay at home.
“When I came to work for Clean for Good and my knee went, I was very worried, but they said we will pay you. If they hadn’t, I couldn’t have afforded to have the operation. That money means so much to people on the breadline. My message to other employers is you reap as you sow. In four years, I have never had another day off sick. I would not let my employer down.”
Andressa, 38, nods. “Before I worked here, I couldn’t get sick,” she says. “You had to work however sick you are. At Clean for Good, you feel safe. You can have a day off, get well and get back to work. My message to employers is – a happy employee gives you much more than an unwell employee.”
Clean for Good launched in 2017, and now employs over 90 cleaners across more than 60 sites. As well as paying the London Living Wage, it has an occupational sick pay scheme from day one, and a profit-share scheme that saw some cleaning staff receive more than £500 in November.
“Take an iconic building like the cheese grater,” says managing director, Charlie Walker. “A bug goes round. The accountants and bankers can take a bit of time off. Until now, the cleaners, the front desk and the security guards, would have to come in ill or not get paid for three days. Then they can’t pay their bills, they can’t pay rent. By removing those waiting days, you are removing the days people come in sick. That will change things for millions of workers, and employers too. We make profit, we’re not a charity. But we think the Employment Rights Bill makes sense commercially as well as morally.”
When we visit the spotless offices of Wilkinson Eyre Architects in the City of London, Practice Director Leah Nicholls echoes his words. “Clean for Good treats cleaning as a profession. It’s not about being in the shadows. Patricio, who works here, makes a point of coming to say hello to me every day. He’s also a very good cleaner. Having sick pay is normal for the rest of us in the building, so it should be normal for him. It would be sad to think someone’s role isn’t as valued as other roles. If cleaning goes wrong, it’s the first thing everybody complains about.”
Diego Martinelli, Facilities Manager agrees. “Being in the cleaning industry is a hard job,” he says. “It’s a great incentive if you are treated fairly, and the Clean for Good cleaners always go the extra mile.” Later this month, the Safe Sick Pay campaign – led by the Centre for Progressive change and supported by over 150 organisations including the MS Society, Citizens Advice, Young Lives v Cancer and Mind, as well as leading trade unions and employers – will hold a celebration event at the House of Lords, at which Sofia will speak, alongside former TUC boss Baroness Frances O’Grady.
Meanwhile, Rose is also moving forward with her life. “Since I changed employers, my blood pressure is normal,” she says. “The doctor was shocked.” Rose cleans for one of Clean for Good’s most prestigious clients, the Bishop of London. “I was nervous because the Bishop of London’s residence is like Buckingham Palace,” Rose says. “But in the morning when I came to work, Bishop Sarah would answer the door for me and make me a nice cup of tea. She made me feel so welcome and so happy. And now she is the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
