Cleaners at the Olympic park earn less than half regular rate for housekeeper in Rio and often work 17 hour days

Cleaners who scrub toilets and change sheets for the world’s elite sportsmen and women at the athletes’ village in Rio earn less than £10 a day, the Guardian has learned, even though many leave home at 4am and return from their Olympic workplace after 9pm.

Their wages, indirectly paid by the UK service company Clean Event, are less than half what a housekeeper in Rio can expect and sit uneasily with the first-world service demanded by the International Olympic Committee.

The figure also contrasts sharply with the £700 daily stipend paid to IOC executive members, who also get free hotel accommodation and flights.

The cleaners are easy to spot at the workers’ entrance of the village. Almost all are black women in blue uniforms printed with “housekeeper”. Around their necks are entry passes issued by Clean Event, though they work directly for a Swiss human resources subcontractor, Adecco.

In a grim labour market, with unemployment at a record 11.3%, many are grateful for any job. But few laud the pay and conditions. One young woman, who requested anonymity, said cleaners were sometimes asked to do tasks outside their job description – such as clearing construction site debris. They were also banished from the grassy plaza provided for athletes and so had to rest in smoking areas, and often missed lunch because of long canteen queues.

When cleaners fell sick or had an accident, she said, they were initially prohibited from using the main medical centre in the athletes’ village, which was reserved for Olympic competitors. Instead they had to go to public hospitals farther away. This policy had subsequently been changed, she said, after the workers complained they were being treated like animals.

But there are still problems. A second cleaner said an elderly worker fainted with a suspected heart attack. Police, rather than medical staff, removed her from the village. “No ambulances arrived because the preference is for the athletes. It’s humiliation at every turn,” she said.

Cleaners are paid 5.91 reals (£1.40) an hour. But deductions for food, transport and insurance left some earning little more than £1 an hour for their eight-hour shift. The return on their time invested was even worse when commuting times were included. Rio’s sprawl and poor public transport networks mean some have to travel more than two hours each way. The pay – just above the minimum wage – is legal but at odds with the global standards expected inside the Olympic bubble.

“The athletes must be aware of our working conditions because they can see the poor quality of the work we do. There are too many buildings, not enough staff and no real incentive to do a good job,” said a third cleaner.

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All six cleaners interviewed by the Guardian complained of long lines for the canteen, which offered food that was described as “horrible” or “disgusting” even though the cost was subtracted from their pay.

Most said they accepted the conditions and were glad of the chance to earn money and see Olympic athletes. Their proximity – and lack of adequate training and supervision – has contributed to cases of sexual harassment against athletes, as well as accusations of theft and prostitution by cleaners. A few crimes have been proven but the innocent majority are also suffering from guilt by association.

“We are being treated like dogs, like thieves,” said the second cleaner. “We often receive gifts from the athletes. They sign authorisations and we take pictures with them to prove that they gave the present to us. We also get signatures from our supervisors. But the security guards forbid us from leaving with the gifts, because they think we stole them. We can’t wear brand-name tennis shoes because we’ll be accused of theft.”

Observers at the village said the situation was humiliating and unjust.

“It is a mess. The companies that are involved are closing their eyes,” said a Brazilian volunteer inside the athletes’ village, who said all of the cleaners were Afro-Brazilians from poor backgrounds. “The foreign service companies get a big contract and then pay this shameful amount of money because they choose the poorest workers. They couldn’t do that in Sydney and London but they do that in Brazil. I feel bad about that.”

However, Manuel Thedim, director of the Institute of Work and Society, said broader problems were to blame for the discrepancies in conditions in London and Rio.

“The world isn’t a pretty place. If the productivity is less in Brazil, you pay less.” He said the salary was not absurdly low: although house cleaners in middle class families could earn 60% more, he said, they tended to have higher social capital and better contacts.

Brazil’s labour ministry said it had notified Adecco about irregularities in the village, including food and equipment lapses that put workers at risk.

Clean Event offices in Rio and London did not respond to requests for comment.

In a statement, the Rio 2016 Olympic Organising Committee expressed respect for labour rights and said it insisted that “contractors are in compliance with current legislation in Brazil”.

It has previously acknowledged security problems in the Olympic Village, which has a workforce of 5,000 people for its 18,000 guests, and controls have been tightened, including repositioning cameras to monitor people as they arrive and leave.