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London Living Wage headlines at CSSA AGM
Members of the Cleaning and Support Services Association (CSSA) attended its AGM and annual lunch in London at the Savoy Hotel on 16 June, formally electing Doug Cooke of Principle Cleaning as chairman of the CSSA. Peter Goodliffe of OCS Group was elected vice-chairman and Michael Rutherford of Victoria General Cleaning Services was elected honorary treasurer. It was also agreed that Peter Goodliffe will become chairman at the end of 2011, and Doug Cooke will assume the role of vice-chairman, to ensure a smooth handover between the two.
Addressing the AGM was Michael Fallon MP, deputy chairman of the Conservative Party and a long-term member of the Treasury Select Committee. The annual lunch followed, and was attended by over 240 of the CSSA’s members and supporters, as the association marked its return to the Savoy after a three year absence.
CSSA members also raised over £2000 for Red Kite Learning, which was again chosen as the CSSA’s charity of the year. Red Kite will use the funds to continue its work of improving the employability of individuals furthest from the labour market, through the provision of careers advice and guidance.
Commenting on the CSSA’s role in the cleaning industry as it passed its 44th year, Doug Cooke said: “It’s been a tough year for our industry, but I think we have showed the importance of continuing to work together. I have been involved in the cleaning industry for almost 40 years, and I still find it one of the most exciting industries to be in. The London Living Wage campaign is gathering pace and I think that contractors and their clients are really starting to recognise the importance of fair pay. Despite all the technological innovations that the industry has made, we are still heavily dependent on labour, and treating workers fairly is a subject that deserves the attention and thought of all of us.”
Commenting on areas of the coalition government’s recovery programme, guest speaker Michael Fallon MP, said: “We always said that it would be a choppy recovery, and it may still get choppier, but the action we are taking now to address the deficit will ensure financial stability for the future. I was listening to Meryvn King (governor of the Bank of England) speak at Mansion House last night about the deficit, and he reminded us that ‘there is no alternative’. He is right - we must take action now to ensure that our children are not left paying the bill for our mistakes.”
Fallon promised additional measures to ensure that banks begin to provide more credit to small and medium sized organisations, and invited businesses to highlight the regulations which they believe are stymieing growth via the Government’s ‘Red Tape Challenge’ website. He also stated his belief that widespread public support for the coalition’s austerity measures showed a widespread understanding for the scale of the challenge the deficit poses, and he believed that the Conservatives would benefit from their tough policies through enhanced credibility at the next general election.
Brendan Tarring, of Red Kite Learning, concluded: “We were delighted that the CSSA has decided to support our charity once again. It was also pleasing to hear the chairman support the London Living Wage during his speech, as this will really benefit workers in the sector and help people develop confidence in pursuing careers in the cleaning industry.”
www.cleaningindustry.org
Living wages for London cleaners
Sandy Aird, managing director of London-based Enhance Office Cleaning Ltd, has hit out at the many employers who do not pay the city’s cleaning staff a fair day’s wage. Enhance has always paid staff the London Living Wage of £7.85 (Boris Johnson has now raised the London Living Wage to £8.30 per hour), not the minimum wage of £5.93. 95% of clients agreed the rate having identified their long-term benefits.
Aird said: ”How do contractors or employers of in-house cleaning staff think they can attract quality, reliable, conscientious staff for insulting rates? London will soon welcome the world to the Olympics. Our great city will be a showpiece and PR tool for the UK and offices, stadia, airports, transport, public places and the streets must be spotless. This is the call to action and great opportunity for our profession.”
Aird believes it madness to pay cleaning staff an insulting national minimum rate to work in central London when a high proportion of wages is spent on travel from outer zones. A £17.80 weekly bus pass leaves a cleaner working a five-day two-hour shift with £8.30 per day.
Aird continued:?“Without fair wages the cleaning business will continue its 100%+ staff churn, which is bad for clients and hopeless for contractors who then spend extra time and money recruiting and training. Enhance has proved that paying fair wages has attracted good staff with a service-oriented attitude. They view cleaning as a longer- term opportunity with promotion prospects - that’s good for client, employee and contractor.”
Andrew Large, chief executive of the Cleaning and Support Services Association, is wholly supportive of Enhance’s attitude to the Living Wage. He said: “I am delighted that Sandy has focused on the fact that people are the future of a service business. London is one of the most expensive cities in the world and I hope that this initiative to pay all staff the London Living Wage will be a shining example to others.”
Sandy Aird continues his ‘Fair wages for the 110,000 London cleaners’ campaign in the hope that others will follow and result in better work from a stable workforce and that the cut price operators paying slave labour rates will be forced out.
www.enhanceofficecleaning.com
Deb Group secures R&D funding
Deb Group's research and development team recently beat off strong competition from a number of established international businesses to win a funding award. One of only two awards made in the category of ‘product design’, the funding will support the cost of a PhD student at Hull University, Deb's partner institution in this technology. Dr John Hines, Deb Group R&D director, said: "We are thrilled to receive this award as it releases the resources we need to really unlock the potential of this exciting new idea."
At the centre of this award and the future PhD programme is a technology advanced by Hull University that Deb believes could radically reduce the amount of water required for effective cleaning and sanitisation, enabling much improved hand hygiene in water- stressed areas of the world or where water is not available.
Professor Bernard Binks of Hull University added: "Through this award with Deb, we hope to learn how to manipulate the formulation space of our new technology to deliver a range of benefits and active ingredients, as well as to develop scaled-up processing routes to take this innovation to market."
The EPSRC-funded Industrial CASE award was made by Chemistry Innovation, one of 16 Knowledge Transfer Networks (KTNs), leading the national innovation agenda for the chemistry-using industries. Darren Ragheb, product design leader at the KTN, said: "Deb's application was particularly strong in that their innovation addresses several of our key strategic criteria. It is truly novel, has the potential to meet important market needs in hand hygiene, and has potential for much wider application beyond that. Whilst this project has very strong industrial relevance, it will also provide the student with a stimulating and challenging research experience."
Potential PhD students are currently being interviewed ahead of the 3.5 year programme's start date of October 2011.
www.debgroup.com
ISSA welcomes first UK distributor group member
ISSA has welcomed Jangro as its first UK distributor group member. ISSA executive director, John Garfinkel, recently flew in from the US to present Jangro operations director Jo Gilliard with the company’s plaque and certificate of membership. He was accompanied for the ceremony by Keith Baker, ISSA’s director of European, Middle East & African services, and Mark Armitage, its director of exhibitions, Europe.
“We are delighted to welcome Jangro as the first UK distributor group member to join the worldwide cleaning industry association that is the ISSA today,” said John Garfinkel. “This is a milestone for both our organisations and we look forward to supporting Jangro and its ambitions for the future as we work to fulfil our goal of changing the way the world views cleaning.”
Jo Gilliard said: “Joining the ISSA offers us an outstanding opportunity to replicate and grow our success by forming alliances with like-minded janitorial groups in continental Europe. Our national accounts manager, Steve Courtney, and I can now leverage our ISSA membership to recruit both new suppliers and new distributor members for Jangro in Europe.”
Regent Cleaning wins RoSPA bronze
Regent Cleaning has picked up a Bronze Award from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). Safety charity RoSPA launched its awards programme 55 years ago. The scheme not only looks at accident records, but also entrants’ overarching health and safety management systems, including important practices such as strong leadership and workforce involvement.
David Rawlins, RoSPA’s awards manager, said: “RoSPA firmly believes that organisations that have demonstrated their commitment to continuous improvement in accident and ill health prevention deserve recognition. Regent Cleaning has shown that it is committed to striving for such continuous improvement and we are delighted to honour it through the presentation of an award.”
The award, Regent's first ever application to the Society, was presented at a ceremony at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel at the National Exhibition Centre. The RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards 2011 are sponsored by NEBOSH (The National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health), the leading health and safety professional examining body.
www.regentcleaning.com
Selden confirms major investment in clean energy
Selden Research has made a £250,000 investment in solar energy to help power its Buxton factory with pollution-free electricity. Selden is believed to be the first professional cleaning sector manufacturer to make large-scale use of on-site solar energy. The clean electricity installation, covering almost 1500 square metres of roof space above Selden’s factory, offices and warehouse, is one of the largest in the north of England.
Green electricity generated by sunlight is sufficient to power filling lines for all pouch refills used in Selden’s new So System hand care dispensers - enabling zero carbon production of pouch refills for So System foaming soaps, skin cleansers and skin sanitisers. Super- concentrate pouch refills for Selden’s new controlled-dose IQ dispenser system, designed for large site cleaning and to be launched later this summer, will also run on a zero carbon line.
“As an industry whose products ensure everyone can live and work in a clean environment, our use of on-site clean energy to help make them is a natural step,” said Selden sales director Mark Woodhead. “We hope others will follow our lead.”
More than 165 tonnes of CO2 emissions will be saved every year thanks to the clean electricity generated by the new solar panels which use the latest thin-film technology and high-tech photovoltaic cells to operate in weak daylight and rain as well as strong sunshine.
“Selden’s ongoing commitment to innovation and the environment has been a key part of our success in recent years,” continued Woodhead. “We believe continuing to invest like this, even through the hard times, will pay dividends in terms of demonstrating consistent brand values as the economy recovers. Environmental protection remains a key issue for all of us. Through innovation in both our manufacturing techniques and in our products themselves, Selden has made major contributions in recent years. For example, our solar energy outlay follows on from the £1 million investment we made in bulk raw ingredient storage tanks to minimise levels of in-bound raw material transportation and associated packaging while our new concentrate product lines require far less packaging and far fewer outward delivery journeys. In addition, we’ve reduced production waste by reclaiming and reprocessing chemicals from tank washings. The small amount of washings content that can’t be reclaimed is broken down in our bio-reactor which uses natural processes to biodegrade the residue into water and air.”
Selden now produces over 44 million litres of cleaning and hygiene chemicals each year for use by professional industrial and commercial cleaning companies in everything from factories and offices to public sector buildings, schools, hospitals and care homes.
Photovoltaic cells used in the solar panels at Selden’s Derbyshire plant have been produced by Q-Cells, one of the world’s leading solar energy companies, while site installation was undertaken by Preston- based iGen Energy.
www.selden.co.uk
