‘Outsourcing firms claim that they can run services at a lower cost than their clients. The reality is that this involves either cutting staff, increasing workloads or employing them on inferior contracts. Noonan is intent on squeezing every last drop of labour out of its workforce at the LSE and is also willing to discard employees when it thinks it can’t get any more out of them. This is what happened with Alba Pasmino, a cleaner at the LSE who was summarily and illegally sacked from her role with two days notice after 12 years service in late 2016.’

‘Cleaners at the LSE know from bitter experience what Noonan’s employment practices are like. To say that Noonan management is oppressive and overbearing is an understatement: the cleaners at the LSE are constantly monitored while at work (it seems that this control freakery even extends to the monitoring of social media accounts) and are often subjected to harsh disciplinary action for the smallest of supposed infractions’, the Union adds.

Noonan Services has been dismissive of complaints by cleaners who say they are being overworked and are suffering physical pain as a result. What’s more, Noonan has gone much further than simply disregarding the concerns of overworked cleaners; it has actively sought to discourage and undermine those cleaners who raise complaints or who support the campaign for improved terms and conditions at the LSE. Noonan has also tried to encourage cleaners to change trade unions and to discourage them from taking part in lawful industrial action by unlawfully suggesting that it might put their jobs at risk.