Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 13th August 2026 Issue no. 1223
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In new podcast, 'Unsung', cleaners across Europe tell their stories in their own words
UNI Europa has released ‘Unsung: Cleaners’, a documentary podcast bringing together the voices of cleaners across Europe, telling their stories in their own words. From invisible labour and night shifts to dignity and organising for change, the five-part series explores the human stories behind one of the world's most essential - and most overlooked - jobs: cleaning.
"The only time people notice what a cleaner does is when she doesn't do it." In the first episode released this month, Hayat Elhore, a cleaner at the European Parliament in Brussels, shares what it's like to clean a building that symbolises democracy - while often being treated as invisible. She pulls back the curtain on a typical day in the life of a cleaner.
Lisa Stenson, a hospital cleaner in Ireland with over 16 years of experience, explains the pride of cleaning life-saving equipment like incubators, the terror of being assigned to the first Covid ward and why cleaners are skilled workers who deserve to be paid properly.
The podcast is released as the EU overhauls its public procurement rules governing €2,000 billion in annual spending. The rules determine the working conditions of millions of cleaners who are employed by private companies but carry out public contracts.
The third episode will expose how the current procurement rules have created a race to the bottom as the lowest price decides which company gets a public contract. For millions of workers, this has meant growing workloads, falling wages and job insecurity.
Many of these workers rallied on 1st July, in Paris and in Dublin, to demand that the EU abolishes lowest-cost tendering and prioritises companies engaging in collective bargaining to support good pay and conditions
(see https://www.thecleanzine.com/pages/24373/essential_workers_rally_in_dublin_and_paris_for_pro_worker_procurement_reform/ for details).
In September 2026, France's Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné will present his reform proposal, which will subsequently be negotiated under the Irish EU Presidency.
The second episode of the podcast examines the hidden toll of night work and split shifts - and why daytime cleaning is a proven, humane alternative. We hear from two cleaners living in two different realities: one trapped in the exhaustion of the night, and the other working under a better system but with its own challenges.
In many European countries, a staggering proportion of cleaners come from migrant backgrounds. This isn't a coincidence. It's a pattern shaped by discriminatory immigration policies, labour market barriers and the systematic failure to recognise qualifications and skills gained elsewhere. The fourth episode explores the intersection of migration, gender, labour exploitation and the fight for dignity.
While these four episodes explored the daily struggles, exhaustion, the invisibility, and the structures that keep these burdens in place, in the final episode, the cleaners talk about what resistance looks like. From ‘Justice for Janitors’ across the Atlantic, to the Cleaners Parliament in the Netherlands, this episode traces the rise of worker-led organising - and shows how cleaners are turning isolation into solidarity and silence into a demand for justice that can no longer be ignored.
Unsung: Cleaners is a podcast by UNI Europa, co-funded by the European Commission. The show is produced by Seden Anlar, the interviews and narration conducted by Gail Rego. The show is distributed by Planet B on their flagship podcast Macrodose.
Listen to the first episode at:
23rd July 2026