Robert, firstly let me welcome you to our country, the poles and brits have had a close relationship for many many years.
We do actually employ more than a few of your fellow countrymen and women, and as a general rule, yes they do work very hard, and are very reliable, we also employ a number of british people as well, who are just as hard working and reliable, regardless of nationality, it is the employers ability to select, train and reward their staff, on top of all that, we as an industry must educate our prospective clients that the only way to obtain a safe, legal and quality cleaning service, is to actually pay for that service using real money, and using only cleaning firms that abide by the current legislation.
The other thing is language, all foreign workers that we employ can speak english, this is not just for Health & Safety reasons, but also customer relations, some cleaning firms employ foreign workers, dont pay the min wage or other benefits etc etc, this in turn convinces prospective clients that all cleaning firms could offer their services at rock bottom prices, this sort of behaviour is not as you might think, confined to the smaller players in the marketplace either, it never ceases to amaze me how many firms actually throw in foreign workers who cant make themselves understood within the workplace, this foreign workforce, has no real training, either in H & S or cleaning, no real idea of what they are entitled to regarding pay and conditions, these hard working people are then blamed for for taking all of our british jobs!
The points raised about the strain on the NHS, education and housing are all valid, no country can hope to sustain a "No Limits Immigration Policy", when the nations debt has to be paid back, as all debt must, the "New Labour Smokescreen" will rapidly dispurse, then, the real tough times will begin, eastern european cleaners, are ,as a general rule, better educated than your average british cleaner, they know the true value of education, work and use the cleaning, food processing industries, as stepping stones towards a better life for themselves and their families, british cleaners, again as a general rule take cleaning jobs because they have little or no educational qualifications or use the industry to keep up with the household bills etc.
Until this istuation changes, the game will remain the same, I unlike some, remember the pain of the 80's, when the unions thought they could hold the country to ransome, I have a feeling that this time round, it is going to be much harder, regards,
Rob
