Cleaning practices for Freska workers raises eyebrows
The Freska practices include serious health and safety risk when washing and storing is done at home, and workers carry around used supplies in a corona pandemic.
Since the beginning of this year, Freska has given employees the option to store, wash and dry cleaning equipment either at the Helsinki office or at home. From a legal point of view, this removes the responsibility for maintenance from the employer. In addition, the practices include serious health and safety risks.
According to the company practices, the majority of Freska workers wash and store cleaning equipment at home. When the corona pandemic speeded up the company’s shop steward raised her concern about the hygiene level of this practice with the employer. Last fall workers were given the option to wash and store cleaning equipment either at home or at the main office in Helsinki, but not in Tampere or Turku, where Freska also operates.
Workers had to choose one option, which was not changeable. Gerstin Juss explains the options:
“If a worker wish to wash the equipment in the office, the employer allows the worker to come to the office and exchange the dirty equipment to clean equipment once a week. What is pointed out in the employer’s instructions is that, workers who have opted for this have to come to the Freska office to wash their own and also colleagues’ work equipment during available working time assigned by the company”.
With the office option, the worker has to pick up the equipment before starting the first gig of the day. He/she also has to start the workday by coming to the office regardless of whether there is a gig or not. The workday ends once the worker has returned the equipment back to the office after the last cleaning on the same day.
The new practice has now been in force since January. According to the company’s shop steward Gerstin Juss’s knowledge, there are only a few workers including herself, who use the office option. Others still prefer to wash and store at home, but mainly because of stiffness of rules. 
Health and safety risks in connection to the home washing option have not been evaluated thoroughly according to Juss, who also is a deputy Occupational health and safety representative.
Lack of biological risk assessment and corona assessments
Gerstin Juss has been the company’s shop steward since spring 2019. In 2020 she also became a member of the work safety committee. Over the past years, she has set in motion changes for the better in the company. She mentions general improvements such as 15 minutes coffee breaks and kneepads, which have been agreed upon.
The evolving pandemic has made her more worried of the risks workers take on a daily basis with home washing.
“Though the employer don’t necessary see any risks connected to washing and storing wipes and other cleaning materials at home, I am very concerned as we have an ongoing corona pandemic in an acceleration phase”, she says.
According to the Regional State Administrative Agency (AVI), there should be a biological risk assessment, meaning wipes should be tested in the customer’s home, and risks assessed based on the results. To this day, the company has not carried out the tests yet.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the employer has referred to instructions given by the Finnish institute for health and welfare in all its activities.
“Used wipes has to be washed in a 90 degree washing programme, which lasts at least two hours. What if you cannot afford to buy a washing machine”, she points out.
It has also come to her attention that there are workers, who don’t own a washing machine of their own, and instead pay for the laundry service separately.
“Besides, using the same machine for washing your own clothes and dirty wipes is not advisable”.
This is one of the things, Gerstin Juss asked about when she contacted the Finnish institute for health and welfare last year.
“The specifically pointed out was that work clothes, which Freska regard as work equipment, should not be washed at home, but at the work place”.
When it comes to the issue of drying wipes at home, not every worker has enough storage room at home either.
“If you have young children at home, storing wipes and detergents there is not an ideal option”, Juss says.
“As for washing detergents, they are provided by Freska, but workers use their own washing machines including electricity and water when taking care of the laundry at home”, she adds.
A compensation for water, electricity and equipment costs, which are caused by home use, is one matter that the employer has not wanted to agree upon yet despite discussions.
Not entirely hassle-free conditions for home cleaners
The employer’s instructions are somewhat difficult to understand, and quite restricted. Cancellation of gigs happen and it is a key factor when using the home or the office as base.
“The instructions say “store at home - stay at home”. You stay at home during cancellations but use the time to wash the wipes and other materials. If you store your equipment at the office, you start the day from the office, end the day at the office and also during cancellations stay at the office”, Juss mentions.
The travel time from home to the place of work is unpaid, while the travel from home to the Freska office is unpaid.
“What cleaners don’t see, is that they would get more paid travel time, when starting the day from the office”, she adds.
Many workers live outside Helsinki, whereas the office option would require additional travelling. Depending on the cleaning schedule, a worker might have to cross cities several times in order to puzzle gigs during the work day also carrying along wipes from different gigs.
Workers can visit the office once a week to do the washing of used equipment. Meanwhile they are stored at the worker’s home every week.
“I am not sure the employer realizes the risks when workers carry around supplies and bacteria can spread from one place to another, even if you are careful, she points out.
Most workers also use public transport between their gigs. In order to minimize the risks during the pandemic, Juss has suggested that Freska supplies could be sold to customers and the customer would be responsible for washing the wipes or alternatively, workers could use of disposable wipes.
“This would be a win-win situation for all parties”, she says.
As workers’ travelling time between gigs is calculated based on the use of public transport, washing time ought to be considered also as work time and evaluated equally.
“According to the employer, workers have some empty slots from time to time when customers cancel, so that allows them to prepare and wash the cleaning equipment for the next week. Most workers don’t have full hours or schedules. There can be weeks without cancellations and no time for washing the supplies, so that does not apply to all”, she says.
The pandemic has raised many work safety issues, which home cleaners are concerned about. Customers can stay at home while being sick, but they should remain in one room and that room is not cleaned. This is not always the case, and customers can be on sick-leave and walking around the house coughing.
Juss has received several contacts from worried workers wondering if they can leave the work when they have found the customer at home sick.
“I also feel workers should be able to cancel gigs, if customers don’t follow the rules set for home cleaning, but sadly this is not the case”, she says.
Gerstin Juss mentions that there has been negotiations with Freska about the company’s practises on home washing of equipment for a year now. The meetings have lead nowhere. By coming forward, she hopes for a change.
“The health risks are still there. Most of all, we must keep the cleaners safe”, she adds.
17.3.2021 correction in the text: The 15 minutes coffee breaks, which are mentioned in the text have been agreed upon with the employer.
25.3.2021 Since the article was published, Freska has asked the Regional State Administrative Agency (AVI ) for a workplace inspection related to occupational safety.
“It is advisable that cleaning equipment shouldn’t be taken home or washed in public laundries. The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health has strict protocols on cleaning companies’ activities during the current emergency. If there is the slightest suspicion of exposure at a cleaning location, cleaning equipment must immediately be sealed in an airtight bag and then sanitised, or alternatively destroyed. Cleaning cloths used for domestic cleaning must be washed after each household or put aside for washing, and then use a new cloth. Basic cleaning principles and good hand hygiene must be observed and masks worn.
When cleaning contracts are made, employers have the right to visit the customer’s home to estimate the cleaning time needed, and at the same time they can also carry out a risk assessment. The occupational safety authorities are running a coronavirus project that involves monitoring workplaces. But it’s hard for us to monitor domestic cleaning unless there is an immediate risk to health or of loss of life. The occupational safety authorities do not have the right to go into people’s homes and disturb their privacy.
In normal circumstances risk evaluation should be done at the workplace, and it is the employer’s responsibility. Usually the occupational safety representative is also present, and possibly also occupational healthcare. Now employers also have to evaluate the coronavirus-related risk and what specific actions are required. Under section 40 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, employers must make sure that exposure to biological factors is limited to the minimum possible.
If a worker also washes another workers’ equipment, he/she should be extra careful in these corona times. It’s good that risk assessment has been picked up on here. It doesn’t matter who raises this issue in a company because it is so important.”
17.3.2021 corrections made in the text in regard of precautions during the corona pandemic in general terms.
In this Freska case, the employer’s practices of having cleaning equipment washed and dried at home are not in line with standard practices in the cleaning sector. The basic principle is that the employer is responsible for equipment and looking after it. If equipment maintenance is done according to the employer’s instructions or if it is agreed that employees maintain and wash equipment at the end of the working day, the time spent on this is working time and the working day ends when this operation is over. Employees must be paid for all the work they do for their employer. If the assignment also includes washing other employees’ equipment, this is also counted as working time.
If an employer makes an employee responsible for performing work tasks in their own time and without pay, this is considered undeclared work and distorts competition in the sector.
There are detailed instructions on maintaining equipment in the cleaning sector. For example, mops should as a rule be washed at 90 degrees, which in a domestic washing machines can easily take around three hours. So maintaining cleaning equipment at home can take up huge amounts of employees’ time and disrupt leisure time for them and their family. Equally, drying cleaning equipment at home is unreasonable. Domestic washing machines are not designed for everyday washing of cleaning equipment, and this will shorten their operating life.
Cleaning companies generally have large laundry facilities where cleaning equipment is washed together. During the coronavirus epidemic, items like mops and cloths are being washed more often since it’s important to use them in one location only, and even within the same location equipment is often changed to prevent disease spreading. There should be very clear instructions on this from the employer, and customers should also be able to demand it.
Overall hygiene needs to be focused on even more closely during the pandemic. Even if employees have undertaken to maintain cleaning equipment at home, during the pandemic they should be entitled to get it washed at work. Employees could also have the right to refuse to maintain equipment at home because of the virus. Washing and storing cleaning equipment at home places employees and their families at risk of exposure if there has been coronavirus infection at a cleaning location.
Text:: Marie Sandberg-Chibani