ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Spanish contract cleaning association ASPEL published its latest annual study on the market recently, which confirmed the sector saw growth of 3.7 per cent in 2021 - at a turnover of €10,577 million.

Margins, however, have become tighter due to the fact increases in labour costs are not being passed on to clients. This has led the association to campaign strongly for changes to the law on public sector contracts and the law on deindexation. This would permit price revision when signed contracts become unbalanced due to increases in labour costs, minimum wage, taxes, levies etc.

The cleaning sector is one of the top 10 service sectors in terms of employment in Spain. It accounts for nine per cent of the five million people employed in those industries.

"We are an essential part of the value chain of the other sectors," said ASPEL president Juan Díez de los Ríos. "And it is necessary that these 370,000 employees - of which 74 per cent are women - are rendered visible."

In relation to the absenteeism figures set out in the study, Díez de los Ríos pointed out that in spite of the maximum level of absenteeism falling from 6.47 per cent to 6.18 per cent, absenteeism figures in the cleaning sector continue to be "colossal".

In terms of turnover, there was a drop of 3.3 per cent, reflecting the negative impact of the pandemic on the demand for services.