Although all seems like a normal late-Autumn day in my neck of the woods, from news bulletins coming in yesterday and overnight, I was half expecting Armageddon this morning. “Work from home,” we were advised, and “Only travel in an emergency,” since, “Storm Ciaran poses a threat to life”. Remembering the ‘Great Storm’ of 1987 and my need to negotiate several fallen trees on my drive to my high-rise office – which had many windows blown out and was swaying in the winds, I realise that this time I’ve had a lucky escape… as have those who can, these days, follow the advice and work from home, thanks to the advent of the Internet. Cleaners still have to go to work though, don’t they? And having to clean a building that may well have suffered flood damage or be experiencing leaks, calls for a fair bit of flexibility following what may well have been a difficult journey to the site - not forgetting, perhaps, having to also cover the work of colleagues who’ve not managed to make it in! 

 

I’ve been thinking about the latest rises in the real Living Wage, which reflects the real cost of living and rewards a hard day's work with a fair day's pay, (see last week’s Cleanzine) and how much difference earning something you can actually live on, is likely to make to your resilience when travel and working conditions prove challenging. Lots less soul-destroying, I should imagine – and, perhaps, feelings of “I’m not going to let this beat me!” Knowing you’re valued by your employer promotes loyalty, doesn’t it? And of course businesses that pay the Living Wage experience fewer employee disputes, an increase in productivity and staff motivation, along with a reputational and corporate brand advantage over competitors – so everyone should be a winner. 

 

The steady growth in numbers of employers offering the Living Wage is really encouraging. Knowing though how tight budgets can be and how cleaning contractors are always being challenged by clients to keep contract costs low or perhaps lose the business, I wonder how they handle situations where some clients are happy to pay the extra to ensure all the cleaners working on their contract earn the Living Wage, while others aren’t. Is the contractor ever forced to pay differently according to the contract, i.e. the real Living Wage to some cleaners and the lower National Minimum Wage to others, or do they average out the pay across all contracts, I wonder? 

 

I’d love to know how they manage to keep everyone happy...