The challenges for social dialogue in the cleaning sector: Research findings Conference “Minimum wage systems and changing industrial relations in Europe”, in Brussels, 23/24 September 2010 Dr. Claudia Weinkopf Research department “Flexibility and Security“ (FLEX)

Contents Common features in all countries Findings for the UK, Spain and Germany –Diverse patterns of collective bargaining –Particularities of the sector –Selected findings

Common features in all five countries Cleaning is one of the lowest paying sectors High incidence of low pay (54-78% of all employees) High percentage of female employees + over- average share of part-time jobs Intensified cost-led competition for contracted services

Countries with case studies in cleaning United Kingdom Spain Germany diverse patterns of collective bargaining UK: limited number of private sector company agreements Spain: variety of regional and multi-employer agreements Germany: sectoral collective agreement with different rates for eastern und western Germany

United Kingdom Cleaning is one of the lowest paying sectors 22% of the employees earn the minimum wage (2008) Median hourly pay is £6.50 (2009) –59.1% of the overall median Around two thirds of all employees are low- paid

Spain The lowest collectively agreed wages in the cleaning sector are 25-35% above the statutory minimum wage Coverage by collective agreements is 65-75% Increases of the statutory minimum wage have not affected pay trends in the cleaning sector –The gap of sectoral wages to the MW has narrowed in recent years

Germany Cleaning is one of the lowest paying sectors Median hourly pay for cleaners* is €7.67 (2008) –56.0% of the overall median 78.4% of all cleaners* are low-paid (2008) Extremely high share of part-time jobs (and particularly mini-jobs) * The database may include cleaners in other sectors

Sector-specific minimum wages in Germany Cleaning is one of the nine German sectors with sector-specific minimum wages (according to the Law on the Posting of Workers) –implemented in 2007 Two MW-scales –For standard indoor cleaning: €8.40 in western and €6.83 in eastern Germany –For outdoor cleaning: €11.13 (west) and €8.66 (east)

UK: extended public sector pay agreement NHS sector agreement has been extended to employees providing outsourced services to the NHS in 2005 –Among them cleaning The gap of collectively bargained pay rates and the NMW has been improved in recent years (up to 18%) Side-effect in cleaning companies: fragmented pay rates for comparable jobs

Spain: particular union bargaining strategy Successful trade union bargaining strategy in the province of Valencia against the background of fragmented agreements –Negotiation of improvements in activities that employ a lot of people (e.g. hospitals) and then transfer these conditions to the rest of the sector Statement of a union representative –“We have large workplaces as well as people working alone in offices. We need to use those workplaces where we exercise some power to achieve broader targets. By making a comparison [with other workplaces] we try to extend these conditions, using it as a reference.“