Cleaners are more often than not overlooked when invites for the office Christmas party are being handed out, research reveals.
A poll of 200 workers from schools, printing companies and charities, by the British Cleaning Council, found that two out of three office cleaners are ignored by staff organising festive get-togethers.
The council said it was “saddened” that cleaners were being overlooked in the season of goodwill.
British Cleaning Council chairman Paul Pearce told the BBC: “Despite their best efforts to keep business premises clean and tidy for office staff, cleaners continue to remain an invisible presence in the working world.
“Without our silent army of cleaners we would be working in squalor.”
In one case, the survey heard from a cleaner who had worked for a company for eight years before she received an invitation to a work function. She was so angry at the time the invitation had taken to be made that she turned down the offer.
Two million people – about one in 12 of the UK workforce – are employed as cleaners.
