Cleaners

The ISS cleaning company, which has many cleaning contracts on the Underground, has started checking cleaners' National Insurance numbers. They aim to root out people who are working without the correct papers, and cleaners could face instant dismissal if a problem is found.

Many of the...

Saturday morning, and a 'customer' decides to deposit a poo on the stairs at Temple station. The cleaner set about cleaning it up - but her employer, Initial, hadn't bothered to supply her with gloves! And when the Station Supervisor - having given the cleaner a pair of gloves from his first aid kit...

The RMT has announced a 'victory'. Cleaners on lines formerly maintained by Metronet will be paid £7.20 p/h when TfL takes over the contract.

It is progress that the RMT has got Ken Livingstone to promise this money, and this should be publicised by all staff to recruit cleaners into the union....

ISS cleaners on the Northern line have been messed around for months.

Many have no fixed station, don't know where they'll be working from one day to the next. They are forced to work on stations where they haven't been familiarised. They are losing out on the stability (as well as opportunity to...

Ken Livingstone has a habit of trumpeting his commitment to a decent living wage for Tube cleaners. Problem is, they ... er ... don't get a decent living wage. Ken's excuse? He doesn't have the power to impose decent wages on the cowboys who hold the contracts.

So Tubeworker was intrigued to read...

Cleaners at Morden depot have prevented their management imposing anti-social new rosters.

The cleaners' union reps did not agree to the new roster, but ISS went ahead and imposed it anyway. The cleaners refused to work it, and management threatened to send them home. But the cleaners stood their...

In Queen's Park depot, chemicals are used to clean graffiti off trains in safe area 'A', but not in area 'B', where there is live electric current. It's a simple rule to protect cleaners' health and safety! But managemenst would rather order them to risk their safety by cleaning trains in B.

C...

At Upminster, the cleaners' mess room is cold and has no facilities. At Ealing Broadway, the mess room is more like a cupboard where you can't even stand up straight! At Euston, the room is so hot and airless you can't breathe ... and there are other stations where cleaners have no mess room at all...

It seems that some cleaning supervisors think they can pore over the station's Visitors Register to check exactly what time the cleaners are coming and going.

They need to be reminded: The Visitors Register - like the Staff Evacuation Register - is for one purpose alone. That is not to spy on...

At Angel station, a Station Supervisor accused a cleaner of neglecting their duties. The cleaner got an RMT rep, who proved that there was little basis for his allegations.

Now, the next time the cleaner goes in with the union to see management, it will not be a disciplinary hearing against the...