cleaning and facilities

The Solidarity Federation Hospitality Workers Union (SFHWU)

Do you work in the hospitality sector? Are you fed up with the way you’re being treated at work? Are you sick of poverty pay, no job security, no set shift patterns, work rotas given out at short notice, overwork due to staff shortages, discrimination, bullying employers and all the rest we have to put up with as hospitality workers?

Don’t just put up with it, get organised and fight back!

The Solidarity Federation Hospitality Workers Union is a new and different kind of union.

sfhwu We are democratic, oppose discrimination in all its forms, and are dedicated to improving hospitality workers’ pay and working conditions while striving to create a better world.

Contact the Solidarity Federation Hospitality Workers Union if you are experiencing problems at work and we can offer help and support.

Your union. Your voice.

You can find out more at solfed.org.uk/sfhwu or contact us at sfhwu@riseup.net

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About SFHWU

sfhwu

Why join the Hospitality Workers’ Union?
How is the Hospitality Workers’ Union different from other trade unions?
Will I have to pay a monthly subscription to join?
Who can join the Hospitality Workers’ Union?
Who cannot join the Hospitality Workers’ Union?

Rights at work

sfhwu

What are statutory employment rights?
What is the best way to go about enforcing your rights?
Do not rely on legal procedures
What information should your employer give you when first starting work?
Job insecurity, abuse of the “worker” employment status by the employer and how to fight it
What employment rights do I have as an “employee” and how do they differ from the rights of those classed as “workers”?
What information should be on my payslip and what can I do if my wages are wrong?
What are my rights in regards to the national Minimum Wage?
What is my holiday entitlement and how much should I get paid?
What are my rights to be paid when off sick?
I am pregnant. What are my rights in regards to leave?
What can I do if I am pregnant but do not qualify for statutory maternity pay?
What health and safety precautions must my employer take when I am pregnant?
What can I do if I have to take time off to deal with an emergency involving my family or some other dependant?
Can I request to work more flexibly?
I am being made redundant. What should I do and what are my rights?
I am being discriminated against at work. What can I do?
My employer kept my tips, what can I do?
My employer has dismissed me. What can I do and what are the chances of winning my case and getting my job back?

Do you sometimes feel your union isn’t listening to you?

Do you sometimes wonder whose interests they’re representing?

The chances are your union suffers from as much bureaucracy as the very institution you are fighting against!

If you are sick of the top-down approach, protect your interests by joining the Solidarity Federation Education Union.

The Solidarity Federation Education Union (SFEU) is a union established out of the desire for connected struggle and defence of all education workers.

In our small but growing union, we welcome all workers within the industry, from early years, primary, secondary, to special and higher education. Whether you are a teacher, student teacher, lecturer, researcher, learning support worker, administrator, cleaner or work in facilities at your institution – we are the union where you will have a voice and we stand in solidarity together.

You can find out more at: www.solfed.org.uk/sfeu or contact us at: sfeu@riseup.net

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By solfed-iwa, 1 July, 2026

Hospitality, for who?

sfhwu You’ve just made your 300th flat white of the day, you’ve been on your feet for the best part of 9 hours, you’re fucking knackered and a customer has just come back and wants their almond milk ice latte remade. You are a hospitality worker in London.

Hospitality work is often badly paid and tears at your soul having to smile and say thank you to someone who likely makes 5x your wages and doesn’t leave a tip.

With growing inequality it feels especially brutal as with the gentrification of London you often have to serve the very people who are also pushing you out of your neighbourhood and bars, cafes and restaurants are part of their playground as you just try to cover your rent.

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By sfeu, 26 July, 2021

Solidarity Federation Education Union

The Solidarity Federation Education Union (SFEU) has grown out of the desire for connected struggle and defence of education workers across the board. In our small but growing Union we welcome all workers within the sector, from primary to higher education, and all roles within the industry, from caretakers, classroom assistants, through to teachers. While some of the existing unions can be fairly effective, many workplaces have no real union presence and workers are left to either defend themselves or have "agreements" imposed upon them. Furthermore, traditional British trade unionism tends to replicate rather than challenge divisions of workers along lines of grade, function, degree of precarity, and workplace by prioritising the interests of specific categories at the direct expenses of others.

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By Tony, 13 March, 2018

Women who clean at home or at work face the same risk as smoking 20 cigarettes a day

New research has again highlighted the dangers posed to health from the use of chemicals used in cleaning. Disturbingly, the research has found that the use of cleaning products has an impact on lung health comparable with smoking a pack of cigarettes every day. This latest evidence adds to the urgent need for a fundamental review of how, as a society, we carry out cleaning, not just in the workplace but also in the home. The research has also again highlighted the dangers faced by women in particular from the use of chemicals used in cleaning.

Is your cleaning job killing you? A guide to cleaners health and safety (2017)

Cleaners have a vital role in society, yet their job is poorly paid and routinely dismissed as a job carried out mainly by women to earn a bit of extra cash. Cleaning is also not generally seen as a particularly physically hard or dangerous job. Most people see cleaning as involving a bit of dusting, mopping and hoovering.

Written by a cleaner, this pamphlet draws on research from across the world to show the reality of cleaning and the impact the job has on the health and wellbeing of cleaners. The pamphlet not only examines the more obvious aspects of the job that affect cleaners’ health, such as the physical demands of the job and the effects of cleaning chemicals, but also takes into account the detrimental impact of factors such as low pay, ever- increasing workloads, low status, sexual harassment and family commitments on the everyday lives of cleaners. In doing so, the pamphlet exposes the true cost being paid by cleaners and their families for job that is central to the wellbeing of society as a whole.

As such, this pamphlet is not only essential reading for cleaners but for all those interested in seeing greater justice for one of the most exploited and marginalised groups of workers.

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By Jerome Baxter, 13 November, 2012

Solidarity with the John Lewis Cleaners – For a Living Wage for All Workers

As part of an ongoing campaign, cleaners at a South London John Lewis have entered into a pay dispute with their employer. Although John Lewis purports to run on a socially responsible cooperative business model, the men and women who clean its shops are locked out of this “partnership”. Instead, they are hired through subcontractors who pay, at best, slightly above the national minimum wage.

Coming on the back of other successful living wage for cleaners campaigns, the John Lewis cleaners are demanding an immediate increase.

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By Jerome Baxter, 13 July, 2012

Solidarity with the London John Lewis Cleaners Strike

The North London Solidarity Federation would like to extend our deepest solidarity to the John Lewis cleaners engaged in a struggle to secure the London Living Wage. By exposing John Lewis' overt failure to live up to its proclaimed co-operative model, the cleaners have shown that company schemes are not the way to secure a decent wage. Instead, only collective struggle can force bosses to provide us with decent working conditions and respect on the job.

Members of North London SolFed will make every effort to turn out to support the cleaners at their upcoming strike and will encourage all our friends and contacts to do the same.

London Living Wage for All Cleaners! No Cuts to Hours! No Speed Up!

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cleaning and facilities