The Standard Issue 4 2022

HOME SECRETARY’S
COMMENTS BRANDED
‘RIDICULOUS’ AND
‘OUT OF TOUCH’
The British Cleaning Council (BCC) has branded the Home
Secretary Suella Braverman’s comments about reducing
migrant workers entering the country as ‘ridiculous’,
‘completely out of touch’ and ‘divorced from reality’.
The £59 billion a year cleaning,
hygiene and waste sector has been
suffering from severe staff shortages
since a tightening of immigration
rules last year aligned with cleaning
and hygiene professionals being
incorrectly labelled as unskilled,
making it more difficult for overseas
workers to join the industry.
The BCC has been calling for
Government to recognise the vital
work of sector staff and help with
the recruitment crisis in the sector,
which is one of the ten biggest
industries in the country, for over
a year without success.
With COVID cases rising nationally,
the UK heading into the flu season
and monkeypox cases already
prevalent, the industry body has
warned the crisis could hamper the
nation’s 1.47 million cleaning staff
from carrying out their vital, frontline
role of keeping hospitals, schools,
supermarkets and other public
buildings virus-free.
The Home Secretary recently told the
media that Britain had too many lowskilled
migrant workers and numbers
needed to be reduced.
BCC Chairman Jim Melvin said: “I was
appalled to hear these ridiculous and
completely out of touch comments
from a Home Secretary. They are
completely divorced from the reality
that industries like ours face with
huge recruitment problems.
THE STANDARD
“Putting more
restrictions on workers
entering the country
when there already aren’t
anywhere near enough UK
nationals coming forward to fill
the mass vacancies is absurd. It
also seems very surprising from
a politician whose own family, I
believe, were migrants, to pursue
such a short-sighted policy.
“In the healthcare sector, cleaning
staff are close to breaking point
trying to keep facilities virus-free
and throughout the industry we are
struggling to maintain the standards
needed to keep the public healthy,
safe and well because of the number
of vacancies.
“With the risks posed by
Coronavirus, flu and monkeypox
increasing, I dread to think what
could happen over the winter. The
lack of staff could affect hygiene
standards, and who knows, it could
arguably put some people’s lives
at risk.
“I truly hope that is not the case, but
the Government should consider
themselves pre-warned and surely
we have to learn lessons from
the last few years. The industry is
desperate for the same kind of help
that other sectors have received but
the Government is not listening.
“It has classified cleaning staff as
unskilled but, in fact, the sector’s
skilled and professional personnel
perform a vital, frontline role that
needs to be recognised. Strangely, I
don’t recall Mrs Braverman decrying
the unskilled nature of our brave
colleagues over the last few years. It
would appear that yesterday’s heroes
are today’s unskilled and unwanted.”
The Government’s own figures state
that there are 1.26 million vacancies
more than people to fill them.
The cleaning and hygiene industry
has traditionally depended on
employees of all nationalities, with
Labour Force Survey figures from
2020 showing that 20 percent of
the cleaning and hygiene industry
workforce nationwide were from
overseas, rising to 55 percent
in London.
But following the new rules
brought in by the Immigration Act
in 2021 and Brexit, many foreign
nationals working in the industry
left the country. UK nationals have
traditionally not joined the industry
and so vacant positions are proving
difficult to fill.
While other sectors, such as poultry,
truck driving and fruit picking have
all received Government help due
to recruitment issues, the cleaning
and hygiene sector has not received
Government assistance.