3.3. Cleaning companies and health and safety
3.3.1. Procurement
In order to be chosen by the customer, cleaning companies have sometimes to respond to very
competitive calls for tender. In some cases it is difficult for the cleaning company to influence on the
customer so that a safe working environment is provided to cleaning workers. Instead, cleaning
companies sometimes have to accept a contract knowing that the health and safety requirements will
not be met for their cleaning workers, or they lose the contract. This means that to a large extent the
customer decides on the cleaners¡¦ working conditions.[2]
Often, health and safety matters are not included in the customer¡¦s procurement and are first discussed
ad-hoc after the contract is signed instead of being an integral part of the negotiations beforehand.
According to the sectoral study from UNI-Europa and EFCI, customers are not always ready to make
necessary changes and fail to resolve dangerous situations even if this is brought to their attention. The
level of occupational health and safety for the cleaners is very dependent on the customer¡¦s attitude
towards this issue. This means that cleaners from the same cleaning company may work in very
different conditions depending on the customer they work for. [2]
Key issues that can lead to problems for the cleaners are:
„X lack of coordination between the cleaning company and the customer;
„X the customer requires the cleaners to do additional work not mentioned in the contract and for
which they are not prepared or do not have the necessary tools. [2]