ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Large numbers of cleaners, security guards and people who work with machinery are regularly forced to leave their jobs early due to injury or ill health, new figures reveal.

According to the Trades Union Congress one in four cleaners and manual workers will quit the labour market before their retirement age due to health issues. This compares with only one in 10 of people working in professional occupations who do the same.

The figures also show that BAME workers are more likely to leave their jobs early due to sickness. And the TUC points to structural inequalities affecting this section of the working population.

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady says these inequalities need to be tackled to prevent older workers from being forced out of work due to ill health.

"All workers should be able to retire in dignity with a decent pension when the time is right," she said. "But many older workers - particularly BAME workers and those in working class professions - are obliged to stop earlier due to ill health. They must not be consigned to years of poverty and sickness.

"The government should halt plans for further rises in the pension age and focus on improving support for people who are being forced out of work due to health issues."

The figures also reveal that twice as many older workers have left the labour market due to sickness during the pandemic, with 97,000 people aged 50-65 leaving their profession for such reasons.