Allianceplus: Cleaners will not be fired

First the Panum cleaning staff found out that they had been outsourced to Allianceplus – a private company.

Then, their legal complaint against University of Copenhagen was rejected by the independent procurement and tender board.

Now, Chief Executive of AlliancePlus, Henrik Nordenlund, assures the University Post, that all the cleaners’ jobs are secured.

Hiring freeze

Allianceplus took over the 37 cleaning staff at Panum Institute buildings of the Faculty of Health Science on 1 September. Today, there are 38 cleaners working at Panum. Soon, only 29 cleaners will be doing their job. But nobody will be fired, according to Allianceplus.

»Allianceplus has a hiring freeze on cleaning jobs in our company in the Copenhagen area around Panum. This means, that as soon as there will be a job opening in another Allianceplus workplace, the nine cleaners from Panum will be transferred,« says Henrik Nordenlund.

Henrik Nordenlund maintains that the work at Panum will be done by fewer cleaning staff with the same, good, result. »We have looked at the municipal demands in Copenhagen, and have assessed that they can be executed by the 29 cleaners.« Nordenlund explains.

Ergonomic and Economic

Allianceplus is a company which believes in economic and ergonomic cleaning, Henrik Nordenlund says. They have up-to.date working equipment and a constantly developing training programme. As a private company it is important to do a good job and be on top of trends, he stresses.

A few weeks ago, the University Post could tell the story of how cleaning staff at Central Campus keep themselves fit through dancing classes. A study, described in this article, concludes that just 20 minutes of exercise three times a week, can strongly improve the health of cleaning staff. Henrik Nordenlund supports fitness for their employees, he explains to the University Post.

»We have tried with Zumba, but it is very hard to gather all of our employees – as we have over 1,500!« he says. »It is, however, something that we are working on«.

Back to cleaning school

The Panum cleaning staff will soon be taking cleaning courses from Allianceplus. Part of the company’s policy is to send all of their employees on course four times a year. The cleaning staff from Panum have not yet been through this training programme, but will before the year’s end, the chief executive says.

»We have prioritized differently with the cleaners from Panum. It is psychologically hard to get outsourced and change company – so we have used a lot of time to talk with them and support them in this process,« Nordenlund explains.

»I find it a shame that there has been so much negative mention in the press of this outcourcing«, Henrik continues, »Most of the cleaners at Panum are happy and do a damn good job.«

polina.chebotareva@adm.ku.dk

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