asked the Minister for the Civil Service (1) if he is satisfied that employees working for contract cleaning companies working in Government offices earn wages and enjoy conditions of service equal to or better than those directly employed;(2) in each year since 1974, how many cleaners have been employed by Government Departments, directly, and indirectly via contract cleaning companies.
Under arrangements made by the last Administration, contract firms used to carry out the cleaning of Government offices are required to pay their employees rates of pay and to observe conditions concerning paid holidays which are not less favourable than those applied to workers in group A of the wages group structure established by agreements reached on the National Joint Council for Local Authority Services (Manual Workers). A schedule of the current local authority wage rates and holiday entitlement should be displayed by the contractor.Responsibility for ensuring that the conditions attaching to Government cleaning contracts are being observed by the contractor rests with the employing Department. I have no evidence to suggest that contractors are not complying with these conditions.The table below gives the number of directly employed cleaners in post at 1 April in the years specified. Part-timers have been counted as half units:
| 1974 | … | … | 3,297 |
| 1975 | … | … | 3,189 |
| 1976 | … | … | 3,613 |
| 1977 | … | … | 3,667 |
| 1978 | … | … | 3,548 |
| 1979 | … | … | 3,487 |