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Barbara Pokryszka cleaned 15,000 hotel rooms as a chamber maid.

And every day she started work at the Hilton London Metropole, she was forced to go through a demeaning morning ritual.

By 7.40am, maids had to report to the office where cleaning buckets and lists were handed out. No one wanted to be last in the queue in case there wasn’t work for them that day.

“It was so humiliating,” Barbara says, tears in her eyes. “Some of the women would get hit with the buckets because there wasn’t enough space and the agency supervisors would laugh at us.”

Barbara says the lucky ones would go on to work up to 12 hours for around £50 a day, which she says often worked out below the minimum wage. Two or three women would get sent home with nothing.

“I was often punished because I tried to say what you are doing is wrong,” claims Barbara, 38, an arts graduate from near Krakov, Poland.

“Then you would be sent home ‘on stand-by’. That is how they controlled the girls. If you make trouble, no work for you, sometimes for weeks.”

(Image: Daily Mirror)

On Sunday, at Labour Party Conference, Barbara launches a powerful graphically illustrated story, A Tale of Two Cities, about her four years at the Hilton. Published by Unite the Union, she hopes it will help hospitality workers fight for their rights.

In July, the Hilton reported profits of £104 million. Rooms can cost hundreds of pounds a night. Last week, I also spoke to Fabien, an Italian manager at another branch of the chain.

“It’s like a gigantic, dystopian Fawlty Towers,” he told me.

“There aren’t enough staff to service the guests well, so you have to deal with the abuse. I am paid only £16,000. For that I am responsible for hundreds of people’s health and safety.

“I am a duty manager. Everyone now is on a double shift. You are stressed and overworked and you do it with a smile because otherwise someone might write something bad on TripAdvisor.”

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Barbara, who had been an artist, teacher and gallery owner in Poland, came here in 2008 to pursue a career in art. Fabien, 50, dreamed of being a screenwriter. Hotel work was a way to pay bills.

Fabien was employed directly by the hotel, Barbara by WGC Services, the agency the Hilton uses for cleaning. “At first I could only say ‘hi’ and ‘bye’,” she says.

“You won’t find people with good English employed by the agency. They don’t want people who can discuss their rights. And they know there are thousands more foreigners out there willing to take the jobs.”

The training made the job seem easy, she says. “Clean some rooms. Eight hours, minus a 30 minute unpaid lunch-break so 7.5 hours work. Then, they said after training we will have to do 15 rooms.

“That was less than 30 minutes a room. There was a spot-check list – 52 things to clean. We soon realised you can’t do all those rooms unless you did unpaid overtime.”

Barbara adds: “Some rooms were huge. Six lots of linen to change in under 30 minutes. Eight cups, eight glasses, 10 different towels.

“Single rooms and big rooms were treated the same.”

With more than 1,000 rooms, three wings and 24 floors the Hilton London Metropole is one of Europe’s biggest hotels. Barbara says 7.5 hours easily became 10 or even 12.

But she still only earned less than £50 a day. In New York, unionised hotel cleaners can earn £16 an hour and work a 35-hour week.

“If you were sick, the first three days were unpaid. So you just went to work,” she says. “Everyone was scared to be sick because when they went back they would be told there was no work for them.”

Two years ago, Barbara, a Unite member, was suspended for a breach of confidentiality.

Her mental health suffered and she is now unable to work at all. The graphic story has been part of her therapy.

A spokeswoman for the Hilton said Barbara was employed by a contractor, WGC – but that they require “absolute compliance with existing laws from these suppliers”.

(Image: FameFlynet)

WGC said it has an “expectation surrounding productivity”. It added, however: “Should staff be unable to achieve the productivity levels for whatever reason we ensure that each hour worked is paid for…

“We do not breach any laws surrounding the National Minimum Wage… We follow the statutory guidelines surrounding sick pay.” It added: “WGC prides itself on its ethical and moral approach”.

Unite the Union says it is now engaged in “constructive dialogue” with WGC.

Regional officer Dave Turnbull says: “We believe we are making progress to improve the situation, but these issues are all too common across the industry. Unite is launching Tale of Two Cities to show people how being in a union can help them fight for their rights.”

Barbara has some advice for guests. “Ask if the workers are being paid a fair wage and make your feelings known on TripAdvisor.”

Fabien recalls his interview at the Hilton nine years ago. “They asked me, ‘why do you want to work for us’? I said, jokingly, ‘to meet Paris Hilton’.”

He shakes his head. “Actually, we are the ones supporting the Paris Hiltons of the world, all of these people exploited at work.”

Fabien’s name and some details have been changed.