www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jun/26/moj-failed-to-investigate-potential-covid-19-cluster-among-cleaners?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
MoJ failed to investigate potential Covid-19 cluster among cleaners
Cleaner was sacked while isolating with coronavirus symptoms as others fell ill
Emanuel Gomes died just hours after his cleaning shift. Why was he working?
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The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and cleaning firm OCS have been accused of ignoring pleas to investigate a potential coronavirus outbreak among workers at the department after at four cleaners say they fell sick with suspected symptoms.
The MoJ cleaning team, employed by cleaning firm OCS and sub-contractor PRS, were told at the start of lockdown that they were essential workers and were to continue to commute into central London.
Members of that team have said at the height of the pandemic, as their colleagues fell sick around them, they were afraid they were at risk of catching the virus but had felt under pressure to keep working in “near empty” offices because of a lack of full sick pay. Instead cleaners who were sick and had to self-isolate were paid statutory sick pay of £95.85 a week.
One man working as a cleaner at the MoJ was also sacked by text at the height of the pandemic after self-isolating with severe suspected symptoms of what he believed to be Covid-19
In May, the Guardian reported that Emanuel Gomes, a worker on the MoJ cleaning team, fell ill and died hours after his shift. There is no evidence Gomes had Covid-19 and the post mortem result gives hypertensive heart disease as the probable cause of death.
Gomes’s union, United Voices of the World (UWV), and his family say that he continued working whilst unwell because he didn’t feel able to call in sick. On the day he died, his colleague said he was so feverish and unwell “he didn’t know where he was.”
“Emanuel went to work feeling sick – but he knew that if he didn’t work … he would get to the end of the month and wouldn’t have enough money,” his brother Leao Gomes told the Guardian.
UVW say in the same time period that Gomes died, at least four members of the same cleaning team were unwell with suspected Covid-19 symptoms.
At the end of April UVW repeatedly raised concerns over workers’ safety, lack of PPE and failure to promise full sick pay to people who might need to self-isolate.
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The Guardian has seen a series of emails sent between 23 and 30 April in which the union asks the MoJ and cleaning agency OCS to suspend cleaning services to protect workers from a “serious and imminent danger of catching and spreading coronavirus”
On 29 April, just days after Gomes died, the union warned OCS and the MoJ that people were working with suspected Covid-19 symptoms. The union gave the Guardian the names of five people who were sick, including Gomes. No investigation was ever carried out into whether an outbreak was linked to the team.
In a statement to the Guardian, OCS said it did not need to report Covid-19 cases to any public health bodies at the time and had fully complied with Public Health England guidelines.
The MoJ strongly denies there was an outbreak connected to their offices, saying: “It’s simply untrue to suggest there has been an outbreak linked to our headquarters.”
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In April, testing was not widely available for people who were not hospitalised with Covid-19. OCS told the Guardian that they did not need to report Covid-19 cases to any public health bodies at the time and had followed public health guidelines and asked individuals with symptoms to self-isolate.
Yet UVW say their members did not feel they could stay at home if they were experiencing symptoms.
One member of the team, who asked to be referred to as Rodrigo, said that he was fired by text while self-isolating at home.
“I was coughing, had aching bones and lost my appetite, it was really horrible, I have never felt that kind of pain in my body before,” he said.
“I went into work anyway but a supervisor told me to go home. I asked about my pay and he said he would sort it, just go home.”
Instead, on 29 April Rodrigo was sent a text from an agency called PRS, a sub-contracting firm who had employed him on behalf of OCS, telling him not to return to the office.
“I didn’t get sick pay, I wasn’t paid either by PRS or OCS and they both stopped replying to my messages. I felt really sad being thrown out of work with absolutely nothing, I felt the walls closing in on me.”
PRS told the Guardian that they were instructed by OCS to remove Rodrigo from the MoJ team. It said the failure to pay Rodrigo sick pay was an error and was in the process of being rectified.
OCS has confirmed that Rodrigo was working on their cleaning team at the MoJ, but that as he was employed by PRS they couldn’t comment on any text message sent by the agency. It also said the termination of Rodrigo’s employment was not linked to him being away from work while self-isolating.
At the time, there was no widespread testing and no obligation to report coronavirus cases to any public health body. But UVW says much more should have been done to protect them.
Molly de Dios Fisher, of UVW, said the fear felt by the cleaners is an indictment of working practices at OCS and the MoJ.
“At at the height of the pandemic workers were being sent to clean empty government departments, told they were essential workers but were then paid below the London Living Wage and were afraid of going off sick because of the very low rates of statutory sick pay.”
OCS said: “As with every other business across the UK, we have had colleagues in different parts of our business off sick with Covid-19 symptoms, and we have fully complied with Public Health England guidelines in managing the situation. Employees have been instructed to self-isolate for 14 days and not return to work.
“We also have no evidence to suggest that OCS has been adversely impacted more than any other business, or that the situation at Petty France [the London street on which the MoJ is situated] has been disproportionate to what has been happening in the wider UK population.”
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The MoJ said in a statement: “We have been working closely with our contractors to make sure all staff have the appropriate safety equipment, in line with Public Health England guidance.