As coronavirus claims ever more lives, cleaners are on the front line of containing its spread — not least in our hospitals. Yet at Lewisham Hospital, the first in London to treat a patient hit by coronavirus, these workers are little rewarded for their efforts. Not only are wages just £8.21 an hour, but some have been missing pay for weeks — leaving them unable to pay the bills even as their jobs become yet more stressful.

With a fresh missed payment on Thursday, March 12, they’d had enough — and walked off the job. Private cleaning contractor ISS, notorious for its shoddy employment practices, promised to resolve the issue overnight, and staff returned to work on Friday morning. Yet the company failed to follow through on its promise — meaning that these already low-paid workers are still waiting on their wages.

The workers are organized in the GMB union. The GMB’s Helen O’Connor spoke to Jacobin about why the cleaners went on strike, how outsourcing is undermining workers’ conditions, and why proper rights and sick pay for workers are also a matter of patient safety.