Cleaners at the Department of Education demand equality

The cleaners at the Department for Education (DfE) are being treated like second class workers by the government and its contractors and they won’t put up with it.

“In my 18 years as a cleaner at DfE I’ve never experienced such terrible treatment. No sick pay, too much work, no proper holiday cover. We are treated with disdain, we are fed up and stressed but united in our resolve. We can’t wait for our ballot papers.”
Gloria Mancera, cleaner and UVW member

In October 2024, all facilities staff at the DfE – cleaners, caterers, receptionists and post room staff – secured backdated pay of up to £2,500 each after reaching an agreement with facilities multinational ISS UK Limited (ISS), their employer and outsourced service provider for the DfE in their workplace.

The dispute begun in 2023, when cleaners at the Department for Education (DfE) demanded parity of terms and conditions with their their suit wearing counterparts.

The DfE cleaners took strike action in the summer of 2023 as part of a mass strike by UVW members demanding dignity, equality and respect but ISS UK Limited failed to respond directly to their demands. They downed tools again in the summer of 2024 as caterers, receptionists and post room staff joined the fight.

“We are all frustrated and overworked, our demands are fair and reasonable” says Kadijatu Jalloh, cleaner and UVW member.

The DfE cleaners, who are mainly migrant workers, say they deserve to feel valued and they deserve dignity, respect and above all, equality with the civil servants.

It is immoral that in 2024 a two tier workforce exists in a Government building, where the mainly Black, brown and migrant cleaners are overworked and treated like second class citizens.

UVW, an anti-racist union, backs the cleaners in their call for the same entitlement to family life as any other DfE colleague and their right to not work through sickness because they are paid a poverty wage and can’t afford to be off sick.