Lecturers at the University of Glasgow are being forced to clean their own classrooms as a result of the increasing pressures on cleaning staff.
The university has been slammed for putting ‘efficiency’ before ‘hygiene’ following claims that cleaning staff were overworked and buildings were not “fit for purpose”.
Trade union Unite has raised concerns about stress levels within the cleaning workforce, claiming that some workers are being asked to do the job of “two or three people”.
READ MORE: Rise in disadvantaged students on Glasgow University medical degrees
According to reports in The Evening Times, teaching staff have begun cleaning rooms themselves.
Representatives from Unite have now called on bosses to offer better working conditions for the employees, including longer hours for existing staff to ensure that tidying is carried out.
Regional officer Alison MacLean said: “For a long time cleaning staff have felt they have been poorly treated.
“The university is not employing enough people, they just get the women to clean more floors. Our workers can’t keep up given the limited resources.
“On the main campus they are spending millions investing but they must make sure this is a safe environment.”
In a survey carried out at the end of last year, more than 70 per cent of university cleaning personnel reported staff cover as the main issue.
The poll also found that employees felt their current workload was “unreasonable”.
READ MORE: Trio honoured for work at University of Glasgow
Unite organiser Derek Thomson, who helped carry out the survey, said the situation represented an “exploitation of the staff”.
He added: “The university is not being cleaned properly. They need staff in to make sure it is fit for purpose.”
Under-pressure workers have been offered the “full support” of the university’s rector, who said staff have reported to him their “low morale” over the past year.
Aamer Anwar added: “The union are right to highlight the concerns which means hygiene takes a hit in the name of cost efficiency and ‘restructuring’, in a number of areas around campus the reduction in cleanliness has become more noticeable, with added concerns for health and safety.
“Many students and lecturers will be angry to learn that the lowest paid staff at our university are treated as cannon fodder, expected to fill gaps whilst lack of job security means they are unable to speak out.”
The university claims it has received no formal complaints about cleanliness or staff pressures and it was covering the majority of staff shortages with overtime.
A spokesperson added: “We work with all users across the campus to ensure that appropriate levels of cleanliness are achieved and regularly test our levels of resource to ensure that we can deliver the standards that our staff and researchers need."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel