News

Contract Cleaners in Ireland have won a pay rise! From this month the new hourly rate rises to €9.75.

This is an important win for cleaners in the context of an industry where workers have insecure work with changing contacts.

Contract Cleaners clean hospitals, public transport, schools, colleges, factories, offices and workplaces. They play a crucial role in communities ensuring that vital facilities are clean and safe for users. Unfortunately the work they do is often undervalued by society and by their own employers.Contract cleaning, by its nature, is based on competitive tendering. This often results in contractors under bidding each other to secure or retain a contract. In the current economic climate some contractors are engaged in a ‘race to the bottom’ reducing working hours, reducing pay and other terms, laying off staff and intensifying workloads in order to make profit. This trend of undercutting and pressuring workers to ‘speed up’ is bad for workers, bad for responsible contractors, bad for clients and bad for our communities. 

The higher wage victory means that companies cannot undercut below €9.75 per hour. This win is the direct result of the months and years of organising by SIPTU and the campaign Fair Deal for Cleaners Campaign. Cleaners have been coming together to have their voices heard, to fight for a living wage and safer working conditions.