ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Said to be the "oldest member of her union by far" is Hazel Ingram who still works as a cleaner in a New York office building despite being 92 years of age.

Ingram has no plans to retire from 575 Madison Avenue where she has worked for the past 60-odd years. However, this is not because she needs the job. "I just love cleaning - I don't know why," she said.

Ingram works by night emptying waste bins, dusting desks and vacuuming carpets. Night foreman at the building Vesel Taganovic says colleagues had been wondering when Ingram would retire when he started working there - almost 30 years ago.

"I said, ‘You want to retire?' And she said, ‘No way, I'll never retire'," said Taganovic. "She's still there and she told me she's going to work 10 more years."

The building is occupied by a number of estate agency and management firms and one of them - Douglas Elliman Real Estate- threw Ingram a party to mark her six decades at the building.

The cleaner is said to be "by far" the oldest active worker in the Service Employees International Union, a multistate body that represents cleaners and other service workers. Ingram joined the union in 1956 and is now shop steward for her building.

Cleaning seems to be a calling that keeps people working long after their expected retirement date. In 2013, 92-year-old Pat Hukins from High Halden, Kent, called it a day after being employed for more than 40 years cleaning bus shelters in her village.