Why cleaners need proper workplace inductions
Submitted by andrew on Wed, 30/04/2008 - 14:02.
in
While investigating working conditions at a large CBD cleaning company an LHMU Clean Start Organiser discovered unsafe work practices, poor cleaning standards jeopardising jobs of cleaners and an unhygienic work environment for tenants.
He also learned how one keen worker improvised so he could do his job despite woefully inadequate training.
Photo: mollyali via flickr
On their first day at work on this site two new cleaners were "walked through" their job by their supervisor but they did not receive any job specifications.
On the second day one of them became lost in the building. He had been told by the supervisor that he had to clean the toilet blocks which were located "to the east and the west" but he couldn't find them.
The LHMU met him on his third day at work and noticed that he was carrying a small compass. Asked why, he said he needed it to work out which way was east and which way was west and to find his way out of the building.
Who would have thought that a compass would be a "tool of trade" for a cleaner?
