This testimony recounts the brutal conditions faced by cleaners in central Valencia who work long hours with little pay. A former cleaner describes starting at 08:30 and finishing around 19:30, without a lunch break, and a relentless pace that left her exhausted. She says the stress, poor health, and fatigue were overwhelming, leading to hospitalization. The worker earned about 500 euros a month for this demanding job.
The pressure comes from marathon shifts, meager wages, unpaid overtime, and contracts that cannot be shown. These conditions are common among workers cleaning tourist apartments in the city center. Many are migrant women who take on these jobs out of necessity, accepting the poor conditions to get by.
The testimony continues: Carmen, one of the workers, passed away in the summer of 2021. She preferred to keep her identity private to continue working in the industry. She had started cleaning hotel rooms recently and says she feels much better, but the experience in tourist apartments left her completely exhausted.
She recalls being given a trial contract for 20 hours, but the reality never matched the promise. She ended up working 70 hours a week, seven days a week, with no breaks. The high workload stemmed from many floors to clean and few workers on the team.
Initially there were three workers, but one could not endure the conditions and left, leaving two. They were told a new colleague would be hired, but that never happened. The initial schedule was already tight when there were three people, and in later days the pressure only intensified.
They were told each floor must be finished in about an hour and a half, even when the tasks were complex. A three-bedroom apartment with two bathrooms, a large kitchen and dining room, or a terrace could not realistically be completed in such a short time. The workers lamented the unrealistic pace and frequent scolding when standards were not met.
non-existent contracts
Carmen worked under a 20-hour trial contract that was supposed to transition into a longer arrangement, but no new contract ever materialized. Promises were made repeatedly, yet nothing was signed. A partner, Monica, faced a similar situation: after a year of work, she asked for pay slips to plan a move, but received nothing.
The company faced an investigation for unpaid overtime, but Monica chose to stay private and not speak out. Carmen also did not see her contract and did not receive the extra hours she had earned. The workload remained impossible to manage.
One worker described two months with no days off, except for the occasional weekend. From eight in the morning until 8:30 in the evening, work had to be completed the same day because clients could arrive at any time. Most of the colleagues were foreigners, with Spaniards among the minority.
Eventually Carmen’s body forced her to stop. A day arrived when she could not go to work; her skin broke out with spots, she grew ill, her voice became hoarse, and hair started to fall out. She was sent to hospital where doctors explained the illness was stress-related and prescribed medication to reduce itching.
After trying to resolve the overtime issue with her employer, Carmen decided not to return and sought payment for overtime. The company did not respond satisfactorily, and the department was shut down due to the mood in the workplace. The workers suffered the most. The company works across many divisions, from standard cleaning to hotel and tourist apartment cleaning, with most staff being immigrant women.
A wristband to control student apartments
Raquel, another worker, cleaned student apartments through a separate company and reported that workers were fitted with wristbands to track time spent in each home and location.
Without excursions and with the bus card
The working conditions dictated travel routines. Staff did not have to move much between sites, but they carried bags of sheets for on-site laundry and used public buses to get around. They sometimes cleaned rooms in cities beyond Valencia, with arrangements that could leave workers stranded if a shift ended early.
The job drained workers for months. For some, the hardest part wasn’t the workload itself but personal responsibilities. One worker, young and without dependents, still felt the strain; another worker with several daughters suffered greatly to manage school routines and still provide for the family, often only seeing his children for a few hours while money was needed for bills and basics.