The Beaver Making Sense of LSE Since 1949
Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union
-
beaveronline.co.uk
- Issue 910
-
Tuesday 11 February 2020
LSE CLEANERS: “NO RESPECT, NO DIGNITY. WITHOUT US, THIS PLACE WOULD COLLAPSE.”
Two years after winning their fight to be hired directly by LSE, cleaners say that little has changed. Their complaints about a culture of degradation suggest a worrying pattern of treatment for the School’s newest staff. Colin Vanelli In interviews with over a dozen said one employee who complained ing cleaners working overnight Features Editor
T
he strikes which captivated LSE and national media in 2016 and 2017 centred around the demand that cleaners be brought ‘in-house’ – that they be hired directly by the school, rather than by the for-profit outside company that contracted their cleaning services to LSE. The cleaners won that fight. In early June 2017, LSE announced that it would hire cleaners directly, following seven weeks of strike action and ten months of labour organizing, and the cleaners officially became LSE employees in early March 2018. Nearly two years later, LSE cleaning staff are speaking up: they say that little has changed and complain of a culture of pressure and degradation which treats cleaners like second-class workers.
cleaners and cleaning supervisors, as well as multiple trade union representatives, The Beaver learned of a tense, high-pressure working environment in which many cleaners believe that they are seen and treated differently than other workers at the School. These interactions also suggested a worrying pattern of treatment by managers and a lack of accountability when cleaners believe that they face mistreatment. One cleaner, who was first employed at LSE over a decade ago through its outside cleaning company, said: “I thought Noonan [LSE’s cleaning company] was so terrible. But now I realize that the pressure was coming from LSE.” Many cleaners complained of the adverse mental health impacts of their work environment at LSE. “We feel like we are going to explode,”
of a tense work environment and has been diagnosed with clinical depression during his time at LSE, “they know you have a problem. And they keep applying pressure.” Another cleaner, facing continued mental health issues after returning from a wrongful suspension, allegedly faced pressure from managers to not take sick leave despite suffering from a diagnosed psychophysiological condition. Multiple cleaners complained about the mental and physical strain of understaffing: on one shift, the majority of workers said that they had recently taken sick days due to exhaustion and medical issues associated with their work. “When you come to work you have to be happy,” said one cleaner who said that their complaints had fallen on deaf ears, “they don’t like to listen when you cry,” added another. Unlike other LSE staff on the same salary band, cleaners are not eligible for the time-and-a-half pay offered for overtime work, includ-
shifts who receive only a modest night allowance. Estates Director Allan Blair told the Student’s Union that the cleaners are not entitled to these rates due to “specific contractual arrangements” made during the in-sourcing process. Despite this, trade union representatives with knowledge of the transition said that no such agreements had been made. A number of cleaners used this disparity as the basis for their complaints that LSE treats cleaners as ‘second-class’ workers: “We may be the lowest level, but we are working,” said one cleaner. In written comment to The Beaver, an LSE Spokesperson said: “The School has had a number of open discussions with the unions on overtime policy in the past few years. Overtime rates for staff on bands 1-5 vary across the organisation depending on operational need…Due to operational need, a very small number of staff have access to contractual over-time.” (continued on p. 11)
OfS raises “Access Gap” Concerns, Names LSE.
Jeffrey Wang
Features Editor
Illustration by Colette Fogarty
T
he Office for Students (OfS) has slammed several UK universities including Imperial College London, Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, University College London and LSE for having the widest “access gap” between wealthier and poorer students. The OfS, which acts as the regulator and competition authority for the higher education sector in England, warned that this gap should be halved in five years. The LSE has rejected this statement, that it actively recruits exceptional students from all parts of society. According to the OfS report, de-
spite an increase in the total student base, the number of poorer students in England’s most selective universities has hardly changed. The report suggests that leading schools such as Imperial College and LSE should provide another 6,000 spots for disadvantaged students within the next 5 years. The OfS can levy fines for universities who do not comply with its policies. Mike Buchanan, who heads the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, said that “Care is needed in starting actively to discriminate against individual young people on the basis of the class they were born into” and argued for selective universities to increase availability for private school graduates.
Inside Today
Features
Dispatch from the Iowa Caucus ...In Paris
12
Comment Wales: Hidden by The Media
8
News
Diplomacy Ball Grows Threefold
5
CDS Hosts Forum on Future of Sino-British Economic
5
LSE and the Coronavirus Crisis
3
Buchanan declared that the 6,000 spots suggested by the OfS should be made up by limiting the number of international students at selective universities stating, “universities should not to increase international student numbers if it denied places to UK students”. (continued on p.5)
DON’T FORGET TO FLIP OVER FOR
FLIPSIDE