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LEADING unions are demanding an “unscrupulous” cleaning firm rehire staff sacked at the start of the pandemic and give them full backdated pay.
Cleanology, which provides commercial services to luxury stores such as Harrods and Lacoste, dismissed at least seven staff in March and April, despite allegedly being able to retain them as part of the government’s job retention scheme.
Two unions representing the sacked staff, the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) and United Voices of the World, said that Cleanology has now offered to rehire them — but only if they sign a contract saying they were on “unpaid leave.”
IWGB president Henry Chango Lopez said Cleanology’s actions showed how “brutally unscrupulous cleaning companies can be.”
“While the government has offered schemes through which staff can continue to be paid, at no extra cost to the company, Cleanology has preferred to throw its employees to the scrapheap.”
Cleanology CEO Dominic Ponniah, a former Tory electoral candidate and adviser to the parliamentary group on trade and investment, said the firm had “no option” but to dismiss staff after 50 per cent of its clients closed because of the lockdown.
