University freed of cleaning staff charges

It was OK to fire cleaning staff. The cleaning staff’s legal complaint against the University of Copenhagen has been rejected by a Danish procurement and tender board ‘Board of Complaints’ (Klagenævnet for Udbud).

This is according to a release from the board. Some cleaning staff were unable to keep their jobs in connection with an outsourcing of cleaning this fall.

The complaint, which was filed by the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) on behalf of the Panum cleaning staff’s union 3F, does not fulfil the conditions for granting it a delaying effect, the board rules.

Panum cleaning staff argued that the proposal made by them to do the job was cheaper, than the proposal made by cleaning company Allianceplus A/S. Despite this, the University of Copenhagen hired Allianceplus A/S. Nine out of 37 cleaning staff were fired.

Catch up on the case here

No obligation to ‘in-house’ solution

The case is complicated. Both sides refer to a paragraph in the The Public Procurement Directive.

The paragraph says on the one hand, that a state institution must choose the cheapest solution, on the other that it cannot be an in-house control proposal.

So far, neither of the sides plan to appeal the judgement.

Future hope

Apart from losing their battle, the cleaning staff from the health faculty have also lost their community, they say. However, there is still hope that Allianceplus A/S will be able to provide jobs for the rest of the cleaning staff.

It has not been possible to get a quote from Allianceplus A/S for this article.

polina.chebotareva@adm.ku.dk

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