Episode 1 Britain's Hardest Workers: Inside the Low Wage Economy

In Britain, more than five million people are now in low-paid work.

I'm left with ?12.76 every single week.

Some weeks I'm just really struggling.

I have to borrow, in fact, off people.

Whether we're unskilled workers, graduates, or aged 50 or over,

many of us could have a future in low pay.

Everybody is vulnerable.

Work is the new poor.

With zero-hour contracts, automation and global competition,

employees need to be more adaptable than ever before.

There's losers in any transition period.

The question is, what do you do to make sure that some of the losers

don't fall through the cracks?

So, how tough are these jobs and can anyone do them?

20 people, all proud of their work ethic...

I'm a grafter. I've always been a grafter.

I don't ever believe anything is above me or below me.

Money doesn't just come to you.

You've got to go out and get it.

..are taking part in a unique experiment.

I'm your factory manager for the next ten days.

They're putting themselves to the test,

trying out a range of low-paid jobs in real British workplaces...

So that's what we're trying to achieve.

Better crack on, then, hadn't we?

I thought it was going to be easy.

..and in a specially constructed factory.

I'll get there. I knew it would be a slow start, but I'll get there.

Facing an uncertain future in the job market...

I want to prove to myself how hard a worker I can be.

I've taken part to show that there are hard-working people out there.

..they'll discover what skills you need

to survive in today's low-paid jobs.

I don't understand. No!

Sorry, it's squirting everywhere.

And just like in the real jobs market, it's competitive...

Jesus! ..with the least productive worker

being laid off after every shift...

The shift has finished.

..until we're left with the most adaptable

and most resilient worker of all.

There's a fierce debate surrounding low-paid work

and in this series we get to the heart of it,

with a unique social experiment that

gets right inside the jobs themselves.

We're going to lift the lid on some of the sectors which employ

the most low-paid workers.

So we'll go from farming to manufacturing,

from food preparation to warehouse work,

to find out what skills you need to survive in these jobs.

So who are our brave volunteers?

They're from across the UK and from a range of backgrounds.

And all face the prospect of earning their living from low-paid work.

I know how tough the job market is out there

and I want to prove that young people are

incredibly driven and hard-working.

I believe this challenge is going to help me to open my eyes, let's say.

I'm sure I could quite easily manage to work in a factory or clean hotel

rooms, or something like that.

It can't be that difficult.

And we'll see if they've got the skills needed to survive in some of

Britain's toughest low-paid work.

Taking charge of our factory is Mike Matthews.

He's the managing director of a ?68 million business in Teesside

which manufactures plastic car parts,

employing more than 560 staff

and has responsibility for a number of factories across Europe.

But Mike started his career as an apprentice on the factory floor.

I think a lot of these low-paid roles are often taken for granted.

Very demanding, both physically and from a skill point of view.

I'm really interested in this experiment

and seeing what kind of jobs

people are expected to do for the minimum wage

and I'm sure it's going to be a real eye-opener for me.

Over the course of the experiment, Mike will be assessing the workers

and at the end of each task, he'll send the least productive home.

Welcome to the factory, guys.

I'm your factory manager for the next ten days.

My attitude to management is firm but fair.

Over the next ten days, we've got some really tough tasks to do

and some of the tasks we've got to do are quite dirty jobs.

The first job is to clean the largest hotel in Leeds,

which has about 300 rooms.

Our workers are going to start with one of the most basic low-paid jobs

and it involves rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty,

because what they're doing is cleaning up other people's mess.

They'll be working in the hospitality industry.

It's one of our largest business sectors, worth ?57 billion a year,

employing 4.5 million people

and has one of the highest concentrations of low-paid workers.

It's an industry where keeping running costs to a minimum is vital,

so that they can offer competitive room rates to customers.

The workers are on their way to this hotel in Leeds.

700 guests have checked out, which means 334 dirty rooms

and it's the same story up and down the country,

with 750,000 hotel rooms from high-end to low-budget,

and they all have one thing in common -

they need to be made spotless

and in order for this to happen,

there's an army of unseen cleaners on minimum wage.

But just because it's a low-paid job

doesn't mean it's easy and anyone can do it.

That's what we want the workers to find out.

As with trainee cleaners at the hotel, they've been paired up

and each pair will compete to see how many rooms they can clean

to the hotel's standards.

When they said, like, it's cleaning, yes, it's something I know that

I can do. Yeah, yeah. So I'm quite happy about that.

I'll be quite honest with you,

the last time I made a bed was when I was a Butlins Redcoat in 1986,

because my wife just won't let me do things like that.

While most of the workers are new to the job,

23-year-old Sabrina is a professional.

She supports her five-year-old son by cleaning homes for a living.

I'm quite confident with the job today.

Everyone can clean, but because I've got the experience,

I know what to do best, what's better to do

and I'm good at managing people.

I'm going to nail this one.

While they're working at the hotel,

our people will be managed by the head of housekeeping.

They're coming on a very busy, busy weekend.

We've had a lot of stag groups in,

hen parties, party people.

We've had a wedding in. Tour groups have come and gone.

They will be in for a shock to see how leisure people leave the rooms

at the end of a weekend.

Ready, girls? Yep, let's do it.

Here we go.

Over the next four and a half hours,

we'll see if the workers have the skills they need to make it as hotel

cleaners. They'll need to be fast,

because the hotel's target is to finish a room in 24 minutes,

but they'll also need to have an eye for detail,

because there's a lot to do.

Andy will have a checklist to make sure that every room our cleaners do

come up to hotel standards.

The bed needs to be made perfectly.

Two points for that.

A pristine carpet.

One point for that.

A hospitality tray needs to be made up correctly -

six milks, four teas and coffees.

Two points for that. And in the bathroom,

everything has to be spotless and streak-free.

Every room has to be perfect for the guest.

20 out of 20.

Anything less and it will fail inspection.

Room 144.

Where is? Just up here.

Where? That's the one.

The workers have been trained and although hotel cleaners work alone,

since they're new to the job,

we've paired them up to make things slightly easier.

Housekeeping.

Let's go. Right. Go, go, go.

Oh, my word. I think today, the workers will struggle with the beds.

They'll miss lots of things today.

You get the rubbish. I'm going to do the bedsheets, OK?

Boy, this one is a mess.

I've got cups under the pillows.

Pigs are probably cleaner than this.

I've never seen one of those before.

Right, I'm going to try and tackle the beds and Kevin's going to tackle

the bathroom, and it shouldn't be a problem, but it's hot in here.

31-year-old Kerry works for an HIV charity, earning ?12,000 a year.

I'm employed for 30 hours by the charity

and I've definitely worked double. It's sometimes 80 hours a week.

Kerry could earn more working as a hotel cleaner.

As could her team-mate Kevin, who's a fisherman by trade.

There's a lot tasks involved with cleaning a room

than there is going out fishing.

I've had to memorise about 20 different tasks just to do this now

and I just hope I can do it.

I'll get on with it and what I do, I do very well.

You know, let's see if I can do this very well.

That's not very well.

48-year-old Kevin runs his own fishing business in Southport, near Liverpool.

I really, really love my job.

It's a way of life. It's a way of life that I enjoy.

I've done a couple of other things along the way,

but fishing's definitely in the blood.

When we were young, everybody used to go shrimp fishing in them days

and there was about 40 fishermen off Southport,

all doing it for a living,

but there's been a big decline in shrimp fishing over the years.

There's only five fishermen left in Southport now.

Kevin's business is making so little money

that he's earning less than the minimum wage.

I work between 15-18 hours a day.

Certainly six days a week.

Sometimes I have to go into a seventh day.

My take-home pay is ?663 a month.

He's got just under ?8,000 a year to live on.

If there is a further decline in his business,

Kevin would have to find another job.

If you're put into a position where you've got no food in your cupboard,

you've got children that you're bringing up and that,

if a cleaning job comes along, I think you've just got to do it.

If you're asking me, you know, would I like to do that job?

No, I'd rather go fishing,

but if I've got to do it, I've got to do it.

So, will Kevin be able to turn his hand to hotel cleaning?

There is a lot of niggly things I wouldn't normally do,

getting on my hands and knees, polishing the floors,

stuff that's low down.

What I would personally do is, I'd get rid of that towel

and put the bins in, bin liners in.

Sabrina cleans for a living,

so she's taken charge of her team-mate Martin,

who is a migrant worker from Bulgaria.

Do all the bins first, because if I'm still doing the bed,

it's just going everywhere.

Do you get what I mean? And she's got a very definite strategy.

Instead of working at speed,

Sabrina's decided to focus on quality.

I am a perfectionist.

If things aren't done a certain way,

I'm going to do it over and over again until it's done properly.

But Martin's done a lot of low-paid jobs before,

and he's not convinced that Sabrina's right.

While the other teams crack on...

Well, the green light did come on.

..Romanian-born Violeta and ex-graphic designer Rob can't even

get into their first room.

Head of housekeeping Andy has turned up to find out what's wrong.

Just let me check it's working before...

It's working. And when there is only 24 minutes to do a room,

every second counts.

SHE SPEAKS FRENCH

Ever since customers could compare hotel rooms

at the click of a button,

there's been a price war raging in the hotel industry.

To keep room rates low, hotels cut costs,

including how they employ staff.

At this hotel, cleaners are on zero-hour contracts,

typically working around 40 hours a week for the minimum wage.

But many businesses have gone one step further,

and have contracted their cleaning services out.

Andy, why do hotels use agencies?

The outsource companies will charge you a rock-bottom price per room,

and that's how they do it. That kind of entices the general managers into

thinking, "Payroll, payroll, payroll."

And I think, in a lot of hotels, that's where the problem lies,

because there is no care and there is kind of no respect.

So Andy's under pressure to come in on budget.

Hey, guys, are you all right? Yeah.

I'll just have a quick check. Which is why every room has to be finished

in 24 minutes.

If not, the hotel might turn to a contractor who do it for less.

Oh, my goodness, what's this?

So the staff have to be 100% productive,

no matter what state the rooms are in.

Somebody's had a tortilla party.

Yeah.

OK, your hoover should just get that up normally, all right?

Sure, yeah. No problem.

Nobody's ever got anything past me.

Hence the reason I run a tight ship.

Now, my dear, what have you done wrong?

Yeah, we know it needs a sheet and we know it needs

a mattress protector. I was going to make it and move it.

Fine, and get everything else done until that comes, OK?

OK.

"What are you doing wrong?"

Don't patronise me. I'm not six.

An hour later, Violeta and Rob are still trying to catch up.

Oh, it's a lot of hassle, isn't it, you know.

Look, I'm sweating already. Let me, let me, let me.

My friend's the one that's doing all the work!

I've worked in hotels before, but...

You know, I think I'd rather do something a bit different now.

Now 63 years old,

Robert used to have a well-paid career as a graphic designer.

You always hope that things will continue - like earning a good wage,

but it didn't happen, so I've ended up with no savings,

so, really, that's why I have to keep working.

Of course, at the end of the day, when you've earned 80 quid and

in the past you've earned 300 quid a day for a job, then it's very,

very difficult. From the benefit of hindsight, I would now say,

of course, if you're a freelancer or whatever,

save some money and look after yourself when you get old,

or you'll end up like me.

Rob's been doing low-paid jobs for the past two years,

but he can't find one he likes.

I do some good corners, don't I?

Not a good corner!

Violeta's determined to make up for the time they lost,

and she and Rob are ready to start their second room.

I'm wiping bloody piss off the floor.

Did you say someone pissed on the floor?

Yes! Even though she cleans people's homes for a living,

Sabrina's finding hotel work very different.

I feel for these people that have to do this day in, day out.

Who would want to do a job like this, wiping piss off a floor?

I don't think it's fair. People get above minimum wage

stacking tins at Tesco.

I'd apply for all the jobs in the world before I did this.

Like a third of cleaners, our workers are earning minimum wage,

and in the UK as a whole,

there are nearly 1.5 million jobs on the same rate.

But is low pay just part and parcel of our economy?

I've come to the TUC, which represents 5.5 million workers,

to speak to Frances O'Grady.

Aren't some jobs just so basic that actually they don't deserve to have

higher pay, that actually minimum wage is what they're worth?

Look, everybody deserves a fair wage to live on,

a wage that allows you to bring up a family and allows you to live a

decent life, not just survive week to week.

We've had a low pay problem in the past.

Today we've got a low-pay epidemic.

The reality now is that the majority of children living in poverty have

at least one of their parents in a job, earning a wage,

but they are still living in poverty.

How have we got to this? How have we got to this position?

We're one of the wealthiest nations on the planet,

and yet you are talking about the exploitation of this labour market

happening under our noses. How has that happened?

I think the problem is we are on a downward cycle of low wages and

low demand in the economy.

Consumers do have a role to play.

We are actually incentivising employers not to invest,

not to improve productivity,

because why bother if you can hire cheap labour?

For a middle-class family on a decent income

that likes nice, clean hotel rooms,

why should they care that somebody else is getting paid minimum wage to

do the jobs that means that they get the things that they want?

Because they are next.

I mean, this used to be seen as a blue-collar problem.

We've seen it spread into white-collar jobs

and industries and professions,

where even airline pilots in no-frills airlines are now finding

themselves on zero-hour contracts, so, you know, if they can

be vulnerable, everybody can be vulnerable.

I've done them.

Well, you need to unplug, yeah?

The teams have been working for just over an hour.

And none of them have managed to finish a room in 24 minutes.

Please, please, please, please.

Some of them haven't finished their first.

It's OK. They're not perfect,

and I'm not leaving any room till it's perfect.

Violeta and Rob are one of the fastest teams.

Even though they started late, they're onto their third room.

Like this. You understand?

That's what I did. And then we have to do like this.

Yeah? Did you understand?

She's quite bossy.

Her favourite little catchphrase is, like, "Do you understand?"

As if I'm a complete idiot.

I want to do it very fast.

And I want to do a good job.

DOOR KNOCKS

Hello. How are we doing?

Nice. Are you OK? We got this far... Yeah. Yeah?

Who's been doing the bathrooms?

Well, we've both been doing it.

I am honest.

I am honest. But I don't want to hurt...

No, you won't, really.

After he finished, I go there, because I want to be the best.

OK.

Born in Romania, Violeta started factory work at the age of 18,

but always wanted to do something else.

I have a degree in philology...

in Romania. I studied English and French.

Violeta was determined to have a better life, so just two years ago,

at the age of 49, she moved to the UK,

and now lives in East London in a one-roomed flat

with her 16-year-old daughter.

It's a little bit hard to take the decision to change your place,

to change your country, your house, to start again,

to live in another place in another country,

to change everything.

OK, please take a seat.

At the moment, she's a driving instructor for a franchise,

and works long hours to make ends meet.

Sometimes my daughter asks me to buy something and I tell her,

"Jasmine, I'm sorry, but Mummy hasn't money."

First of all, we have to pay what we have to pay, rent, franchise,

but I work hard now, because I know that in two, three years,

I will change my life and I will live better.

You've scored very well so far.

A couple of points, OK?

Your pillows? Yeah?

You need to have one pillow for each side of the bed.

Yes, OK, I understand.

Perfect. OK.

It's halfway through the shift,

and Andy's inspecting the workers' rooms.

He's using the 20-point checklist to score each element.

Straight away, you can tell that things are not right.

There's all gunge still in the plughole down there.

There's all bits that have not been cleaned.

The top of the bin has not been cleaned.

I'm going into the bedroom.

The general sort of dusting is not very good.

The spoons have not been cleaned properly.

The bed has been rushed.

So, we've got marks here and here.

Andy relies on his own cleaners to turn out perfect guest-ready rooms

time after time. You can see that they've tried,

but I would have to send another cleaner in here to rectify it,

because when a guest walks into the bedroom,

the first thing they see is the bed.

Sub-standard rooms cost time and money.

The price war has meant hotels have already stripped back running costs,

but the Government's National Living Wage means that every worker will be

paid an additional ?900 a year before tax.

Can employers afford it?

Economics editor Chris Giles has been looking at the figures.

It will cost employers about ?4 billion a year.

Wages and salaries are about ?900 billion.

Although four billion sounds a huge amount of money,

it's less than half of 1% of what they pay anyway to employees,

so there is clearly a case for giving it a go.

Raising the bottom end of the wages so that we can see whether we can

withstand it as a nation.

So if people are earning more,

are they going to spend more and is that good for the economy?

People who get the new minimum wage will have more money and they will

almost certainly spend it.

But this money doesn't come from nowhere.

It comes either from the owners of companies,

who will have lower profits,

or from everyone in Britain who might have to face higher prices and

they spend less. We shouldn't look at the minimum wage as a way of

boosting demand or spending in the economy,

but this is a redistribution,

it doesn't generate money for the country as a whole.

So what could the negative effects be?

Well, the negative effect is that people might in the end find

getting jobs much more difficult,

not because they're thrown out of work because of the minimum wage,

but because companies will take decisions to have things like

self-service checkouts, or self-service breakfast.

It is those sorts of decisions over time that companies make which

will mean that people in certain areas might find it hard over the

medium term to find jobs.

Kevin and Kerry have started their second room,

but Andy's not happy with their first.

Just have a look at this room, guys, please,

and if you can tell me what still needs to be done in here.

The towels need to be turned around.

Yeah. And the rest of this chrome needs polishing.

OK. I'll... Let me tell you what you need to do.

You need to get one room finished completely

before you move onto the next. OK.

Right. Because that's where mistakes happen.

And when you've finished cleaning a room, make sure any rubbish,

like the shampoo bottle here, make sure that is picked up.

Now Kevin and Kerry will need to try and get both rooms up to standard.

And that will make them slower.

I shouldn't have left it without it being done, so I can't blame...

I can't blame Kev for that.

So far, none of our teams have cleaned a room

to Andy's satisfaction.

Hi, guys.

And there's one element that's causing them all to lose points.

There's no sheet on the bed. Ahh!

There's curly hairs on the bed.

We didn't put a sheet on the bed. So, you know, guys,

if I sold this to a guest...

Yeah, of course, of course. I'd have to refund them.

Totally, totally, you know...

Out of order. I can't have that.

That was... We missed it.

Speed.

Making sure the beds are clean, with clean sheets,

is part and parcel of working in housekeeping.

It's part of the housekeepers' job to make sure that that bed is

perfect for the guests coming in.

Hotels have cut costs by outsourcing services.

And in this hotel, the laundry's done by an outside company.

But it's up to the cleaners to check it's perfect.

Another one, please.

What's wrong with this one? This hole.

All within their 24-minute slot.

And this one's dirty.

Andy's come to inspect Sabrina and Martin's second room.

You all right, guys? Right, OK.

That's a reject.

There's a stain there. OK.

There's a stain there. I didn't see that.

It's another room that's failed because of the laundry.

But will the bathroom Martin's done to Sabrina's instructions

be up to standard?

Take off your shoes, please.

SHE LAUGHS

My shoes don't make a mark.

Your towels. That's perfect.

Well done. So, for a first time, that's very, very good.

However, you need, with your chrome, to buff it off, OK?

There's a few streaks on there.

I'm not happy.

We need to fix everything, so all these beds are coming off.

I'm getting really sick and tired of this.

This is how housekeeping is, my dear.

INDISTINCT

OK, don't be angry with me, yeah?

It's not my fault. Yeah, but you're there.

You're wanting to rush.

And this is why I tried to explain to you,

I'd prefer to do at least two or three rooms and we get full marks.

If you don't start rushing.

Well, you've seen the other room and you thought it was perfect.

You saw what the guy said.

OK, it's not just my fault.

We are a team. I'm not saying it's your fault. It's both of our faults.

But you're sat there and you're more bothered about

what everybody else is doing.

I'm BLEEP off, I really am BLEEP off.

Hello. Hello. How are we doing?

That's a reject. Cos there's a stain.

Wow. I didn't see that, did you?

OK? There is a stain there.

Stephanie and Jenny both work in the catering industry,

but have never been hotel cleaners before.

That would be a total fail because of that.

That. That. Why? Because the guests...

No, what I mean is... Why are we the end quality control on the laundry?

In the hotel industry, you get rejects.

Right. This happens in all the hotels.

We haven't picked up... This is real life.

This is... Can I finish?

Yeah. Can I finish? This is cleaning a room.

This is getting your rejects.

We don't get charged for the rejects.

They get tied in a knot, gone down the chute.

Is 50% rejects normal?

I think you're getting besides the point.

Let me finish. Regardless of the rejects system, that's not your concern.

The bed's dirty. That needs to be changed.

Can I finish, then, now?

Yes, of course. We have done jobs two, three times.

OK. And that was our frustration.

OK. Let's change this bed.

Let me finish. Let me finish now.

Please... I feel your frustration, but this is...

Over and done with. This is real life.

This is how it happens in hotels.

Fine. You know? You've told me that three times.

End of story. OK? Can we change this bed? We've got to get on.

OK. OK. Let's get...

That must be so demoralising for anybody who works doing this all the time.

It is just... You are up against the clock,

you are trying to maintain the standard.

The workers who do this, it makes me admire them even more.

Stephanie stood there and argued with me,

totally disrespectful towards myself.

If she was a member of my team starting training,

she would be monitored for a week and if her attitude hadn't changed,

I would ask her to leave.

If you're on a zero-hour contract, your rotas will be drawn up

by managers who can either give you work or decide not to.

Pleased to meet you.

I've come to speak to economics editor Larry Elliott,

who's concerned about the rights of casualised workers.

You're someone on minimum wage.

You're on a zero-hours contract.

You're living hand-to-mouth.

How do you protect yourself in that situation?

What can you do? Protecting yourself if you're on a minimum wage job

or a zero-hour contract is pretty hard.

Why has that happened?

Well, one of the reasons we have low pay in the UK is because

the employers have the whip hand over the workers.

I mean, we have seen a dramatic fall in the number of people who are

members of trade unions since the peak in the 1970s.

Most of the new industries now tend to be non-unionised.

And that means it's quite hard for workers to demand the sort of

pay increases that they might have had 30 or 40 years ago.

It seems to me there is a generation

who don't even think about joining a union.

It's not even something that crosses their mind.

Why has there been such a shift?

I think as the economy developed and new industries grew up,

they tended to not be unionised right from the start.

And I think the trade unions have been quite poor at recruiting in

some of those new areas, I think...

They've struggled to recruit people in those service sector economies,

which tend to be much more atomised than the old big factories anyway.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no...

Oh, my God. That was all right.

The teams have been working for three hours,

and by now most of them are on to their third, even fourth room.

Open the drawers.

Your coffee - you've done.

One cup's done...

But the combination of working at speed and keeping up standards is

taking its toll. On a hot day, I'd have an absolute heart attack.

See, people think things are so easy,

and when you're on a time schedule to try and do something...

Christ.

You see how we work.

My blouse is... All the time I sweat.

And these women which are working here, they work very hard,

they work a lot. I can't understand, they are so less paid.

Immigrants like me left their houses, their families,

and come here and work.

SHE SNIFFLES

It's not fair.

No, it's not fair.

A third of all cleaners are foreign-born.

It's one of the most popular jobs amongst migrants, and in this hotel,

all of the cleaners are immigrants with four different languages spoken

between them. All your workers are migrants.

Why is that?

Erm, I don't know, if I'm being honest.

I put adverts out, we look for staff.

All the applicants that I do seem to get...

come from Eastern European staff.

I don't understand when you see these people say

there is no work available.

We want to work. Well, I put adverts out all the time when I need staff,

and nobody wants to clean.

Nobody wants to do it.

Martin, don't forget to spray the air freshener. OK.

With a quarter of an hour left,

most teams are on to their sixth room.

Martin. Yeah?

Can you move this? Yeah.

Yeah? Quickly, though. No walking. Running. OK.

He said, leave the doors open, that's making it worse.

You're panicking too much, Judy, calm down. I am.

Go, go, go...

Sabrina and Martin are trying to do a seventh room to get extra points

from Andy. Please be nice. Please be nice.

They've increased their speed, but Kerry and Kevin are much slower.

It's taking them nearly an hour to do each room.

Well, Kerry's going at it 100mph and she's trying her best.

And every time she gets to 100mph

I'm bringing her straight back down to 50.

So... Well, 55.

We're doing all right. We'll be fine.

We'll probably... We're not as quick as everyone else,

but it don't matter. Jesus, have you got any sandpaper?

Of the 70 rooms that our teams have cleaned so far,

not one has come up to standard.

Good afternoon, housekeeping.

I am not giving up till I get one perfect single bed.

Andy's scoring them out of 20.

Everything's very clean in here.

But he's still on the search for one

that can be let out to a paying guest.

Very good bathroom.

Sorry, I thought you were still in there.

I have to say, I'm very impressed with this room.

We need to finish this room.

Rob! Help me, because the time is passing!

Attention to detail is spot on.

Full points.

The first one so far today.

OK, unplug, unplug, unplug. Unplug.

Is that everything done? Yeah.

Just light off, doorstop out.

Done. I need a sick bucket.

The task is over.

Now Andy will finish the room inspections and feed the results

back to the boss Mike Matthews at the factory,

where the teams will find out

who had the right skills to be hotel cleaners

and who will be going home.

At the beginning when we went in, I was like, yeah, do this, bam, bam.

And I was like, we've done it right.

But then when Andy came in, he was like,

you've failed on this and you've failed on that.

Little things that could fail you, and I was like, wow.

"You will be judged for every little thing that you've done today."

They were his exact words.

First, Mike will pay them for the work they did as hotel cleaners.

You've all worked extremely hard,

so now I would like to give you your wages.

Zach... It's a minimum-wage job, paid at a pre-April rates,

so for 4.5 hours, they've earned ?30.15 before tax.

Wow. That wouldn't even pay one bill in my house.

If you double that, I think that would be fair.

But did the workers show the skills they need to be hotel cleaners?

Like having an eye for detail and being able to work at speed.

Our factory manager, Mike, is analysing the data to find out.

Every room cleaned has been scored out of a possible 20 points.

What we see on this scoresheet is some really, really low scores.

We've got fives, we've got sixes, we've got sevens.

Nothing like 20.

What about their overall scores?

The hotel's cleaners would score a total of 220 in the same time.

None of our teams got close to that.

The lowest team scored 58.

We all take cleaning for granted.

We all think it's an easy job.

Yet here we have two guys who could

only achieve 25% of the expected standard.

Not only did they not achieve the standard,

they didn't clean anywhere near the number of rooms that the hotel would

expect them to clean.

And even the most productive team were way off what

the hotel would expect, with a score of 115.

They were the only team to actually score a perfect score

of 20 out of 20, and that was only achieved once.

And that team also had the winning score,

so they're at the top of the leaderboard.

Oh, my God.

I'm first! Rob, thank you very much.

You are the best colleague.

Only with you, though.

I couldn't have done it with anybody else.

And how did the rest of our teams do?

Who came last and will be going home?

Kevin and Kerry were one of the slowest teams.

They only finished five rooms in all.

And most of their rooms only scored half marks or less.

Honestly, it's all right.

They'll be the ones to leave our experiment and go home.

Unfortunately, you know, we didn't do enough.

If it was filleting fish or lifting big, heavy boxes,

I'd have been top of that tree.

At the end of the day, if you've got to go, you've got to go.

It's been a hard first task for everyone.

Pam's found herself nearly at the bottom of the leaderboard.

I said, "It's cleaning, anyone can clean."

Well, you know what? No, they can't.

Not to... Well, it proves it.

I thought I could clean.

No-one's going to want to come to me house now, are they?

It's day two of our investigation into low-paid work,

and today our workers are back in our specially constructed factory.

And if they thought hotel cleaning was a dirty job,

then today is going to be even tougher.

In the UK, we produce around 200 million tonnes of waste every year.

That's three tonnes for each of us.

We'll be expected to recycle half of our household waste by 2020.

It's an awful lot of waste to sort.

But that's exactly what pickers do every day up and down the country.

The recycling industry processes

over 77 million tonnes of waste a year,

selling much of the end product onto the commodity market.

And as more waste is recycled, the industry is forecast to expand.

It could create around 10,000 jobs in the next ten years,

and many of those jobs will be as pickers.

That's what we want our people to try out.

Will they have the skills needed to do the job?

Good morning, everybody.

ALL: Good morning.

Today, you will be put to the test in our factory.

Everything in here is based on real conditions,

except in here we can measure your work in a controlled environment.

Today's job lies behind the doors behind you.

And it will mean getting your hands dirty.

Good luck to you all. Mike, they are all yours.

OK, are we all ready? ALL: Yes.

Let's go and do the next job.

ALL: Wow.

We've asked a waste management company to bring in

20 tonnes of mixed rubbish to the factory.

That's paper, plastics, rotting food and dirty nappies.

And the workers will be sorting through it to find material that can

be recycled. You can keep up the pressure, can you?

I'm fine with this. This is... This suits me.

We've split the 18 remaining workers into six teams of three,

who'll compete to take as much recyclable material as they can off

the conveyor belt. And put it into the red containers.

As long as we work as a team.

Yeah, that's the main thing.

Exactly. We'll be a team, yeah?

Yeah. Definitely.

Whichever team picks out the most will win.

It's hand-eye coordination.

In, out, in, out, in, out, in, out.

But we're going to break them in gently.

At first, the conveyor belts will run at half speed and our teams will

be picking from cleaned-up rubbish.

The dirty stuff will come later.

Is anyone's glasses steaming up? Yes.

OK, guys. Task for the first hour is to pick paper.

That's it. Off we go.

KLAXON WAILS

Let's go, go, go. Come on, blue team.

Oh, my days.

All right, all right. Bloody Nora.

I can't see a thing, my bloody things are steamed up.

That's paper. I thought it was a book or something.

Daily Mail. Just pick out what you can.

You don't realise that they are actually,

these are human beings that are doing the jobs like this.

Wahey. What are you looking for in the workers?

It's anybody who can do the job.

We look for really reliable people.

We look for hard workers.

And if you had to give one piece of advice to the pickers,

what would that be? Just dig in and stick with it.

Our workers will be measured against estimates of what an

experienced picker can achieve.

So their target is to pick out over 110kg of recyclable material

an hour, but with a team on each side of the conveyor belt,

they are also competing against each other,

to grab as much material as they can.

The pink and blue teams are working at the same conveyor belt,

so Violeta, who won yesterday's task, and Pam,

who just avoided being last, are going head-to-head.

OK, OK, OK. Paper, paper.

I came to show the people that I know to do something.

For this reason I came.

Otherwise, stay at home and do something else.

Violeta is constantly saying, "Where is paper?

"Where is paper? Where is paper? Where is paper?"

It's just her way of being focused.

To be working across from Violeta is actually quite a blessing for me,

because you are all constantly trying to keep up with the person

that's faster than you, and she is a machine.

44-year-old Pam lives near Birmingham and has been out of work

since bringing up her four children.

It's going to be minimum wage, I think, for me,

because I don't have qualifications or skills.

Even though Pam's partner Graham has a secure job at a local company as a

welder and forklift truck driver...

Coffee? Please.

..they're finding it difficult to get by.

It's not for you! My partner, Graham, brings home minimum wage.

He works full-time.

We barely scrape by.

He is paid on a Friday afternoon.

By the time the bills are paid,

we've no money till the following Friday.

And I don't think we should have to live like that,

not when he works so hard.

So, you know, I'm prepared to just jump in and do anything to try and

make life a little easier. So after 20 years out of work,

Pam's determined to get back into the job market.

This computer is incredibly slow.

It's held together with Sellotape.

But for a new laptop, I need money, and for money, I need a job.

Until four years ago,

her health problems meant that she was unable to work.

I spent ten years as a wheelchair user,

and ballooned to just under 23st.

Just sort of looked at myself and thought, "Nah, sod that.

"I've had enough." So I've lost 9st.

Although I'm a lot smaller in stature now,

I think I'm a lot bigger in personality,

attitude, determination.

So far, Pam's applied for over 100 jobs.

Do you know what? I don't have a dream job, I just want a job.

Guys. You're picking really well, yeah?

But try not to pass it hand to hand. Try to get bigger pieces, yeah?

You've got a really good fast pick rate,

but you're only taking very small pieces at a time.

Try and grab a handful like that.

Yeah, yeah. OK.

Good stuff. Well done. I was given some good advice by the boss.

So I've now gone from...

..to...

So which of the workers would make it as a picker?

On the green team,

ex-graphic designer Rob is struggling to keep up.

I think more is going on the floor than anywhere else.

I imagine there are very few people

who would enjoy sorting rubbish out all day long.

I certainly wouldn't.

I need a new bin! But on the same team,

migrant worker Martin is forging ahead.

Yesterday, he wanted to clean hotel rooms faster than his team-mate.

Today, he is able to go at his own speed.

I like this job better than yesterday.

You come in from a different country

and you try to prove yourself.

It doesn't matter what job you are doing.

I always say that.

26-year-old Martin left Bulgaria five years ago.

I decided to come to England,

because I didn't see much opportunity in my country.

I was working there. I started to work at quite a young age,

but you're working, for example, for ?200 or less,

and I don't know how you're going to manage to survive after.

I came here to improve myself.

Now he lives with his brother and their family in a shared house,

and has two minimum-wage jobs to be able to pay the rent.

HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

My English still was totally broken.

I didn't even know how to communicate

a little bit with the people.

Every job he's done since coming to the UK has been for minimum wage.

I started as a strawberry picker.

I was working as a labourer.

I was doing the gardening.

Working in a car wash.

A bit of painting as well.

I grew up with hard work, even from a child.

I started, I remember, I was six or seven years old.

I was picking up tobacco, potatoes, all the basic farming work.

I'm quite happy, actually, after physical work.

After a long day, I'm satisfied for myself that I've been very helpful,

not only for me and for my boss, the customers are happy also.

There is opportunity for a better life and I am fighting for it.

OK, we're going to do a change of your bin.

Are you ready? Yes, please.

Thank you.

Picking is a tough job, and it's not to everyone's taste.

In some recycling plants, nearly all the pickers are from abroad.

So I asked economist Kamal Ahmed

why we British are choosing not to do the dirty jobs.

What is the situation, Kamal, with migrant workers?

Are British people lazy?

HE SCOFFS

Are there certain jobs that they just don't want to do because they

think of them as being dirty? I don't really agree with that notion.

I think that migration into the UK

brings different types of skills and

is broadly, by many economists, seen as a value to a country,

because people come here, they want to work, they will then pay taxes,

that is therefore good for the country in general.

Countries with very low levels of migration have a big problem with

ageing populations. Look at Japan.

They struggle to think about how they can afford

their ageing population,

so migration is seen by many economists as a good thing.

But of course, it does create challenges.

With migration as it is,

do you think in certain sectors it keeps the wages down because

migrants are prepared to work for less?

If you look at the British Chamber of Commerce latest survey,

they do say that migration has kept

a downward pressure on wages in some areas.

Migrants will come here, often for a relatively short period.

They will want to work incredibly hard and incredibly long hours,

sometimes, for lower amounts of money.

That does set up a challenge for British people who are here,

who may think that those jobs aren't the kind of jobs they want to do.

But I think that rather than think, right,

the problem is migration and therefore we should stop that,

the issue is surely that British people who don't want to do the type

of jobs that they may say migrants are doing, well,

should go and try different sectors and new training.

So it's all about this idea of constantly improving your skills,

of constantly making yourself

more valuable as an employee for employers.

So far, the workers have had it easy.

Now they're going to be exposed to the real thing.

Instead of cleaned-up rubbish,

it'll be dirty waste on the conveyor belts,

just like pickers up and down the country face every day.

This is where you really find out

whether or not they want to do the job.

Yucky stuff, girls,

including food waste.

This smells revolting.

Ah, I've just touched it!

Oh, my God.

MAN GROANS

Smelly. Something smells really bad.

Oh, no!

Do you see that?

It's smelly, dusty, I think you'll get some disease from that.

Oh, what is that? Oh, my God.

It's almost like a dead dog coming down.

Some of the things we get through the pick lines

are contaminated sharps,

needles, Stanley knives, dirty nappies, bags of dog mess.

This is a killer.

I've got asthma. I don't know how people could stand here and not,

like, actually have masks on.

I feel a little bit tight.

My nose is getting a bit sore.

And I started coughing.

I just feel really uncomfortable.

I feel like I'm going to start losing my voice.

Oh, my God.

This is unbelievable.

How hard is it when you first become a picker?

BOTH GROAN

Well, you get... There is the fatigue side of it.

The first thing everyone gets is motion sickness.

Yeah, motion sickness.

You get it all the time.

They can faint on the lines.

They need water. You have to get them to hospital sometimes.

Yeah. You just feel dizzy all the time.

Cos you're constantly doing that,

so you're going to feel sick. Why do people stick at it?

Just have to know what you're doing it for, so,

basically saving the environment.

If you think about it all the time at work,

you just feel good and you just want to keep doing it.

Tell me about some of the worst stuff that you've seen.

I've heard they found over-a-metre-long iguana in there.

A reptile? I personally have seen a deer's head,

and a horse's head as well.

First of all, where do you even get a horse's head from...?

And someone just put it in the bin?

Yeah. "What do we do with this? Put it..."

I think about it all the time.

How could you be that nasty, to put a dead horse in the bin? Yeah.

It's piling up a bit.

What is that, plastic?

An hour into the task, and Judy is one of the least productive workers.

I'm finding this very hard.

I thought that the machines separated stuff.

I'm just amazed at having to stand at this assembly line and doing all

this. Yeah...

it's very strenuous, it's very hard.

I think it just gives an insight into what kind of work people are

doing on a low wage.

Being in low-paid work is something Judy never thought

would happen to her. Until the crash eight years ago,

she was living a very different kind of life,

earning ?40,000 a year as a mortgage adviser.

The market was very buoyant.

The mortgage opportunity for my customers was phenomenal,

because they could borrow up to 100%,

so they could actually command quite a good mortgage.

And because of that, I was able to command quite a decent income,

and on top of that,

commission from all the extras that I could offer them as well.

And I had a good lifestyle from that.

I was able to take my children on holiday abroad,

and buy nice things for my house.

But it wasn't just about the salary she earnt.

Judy enjoyed being a financial adviser.

It takes me back.

Power shoulders, remember those?

These have got powers, look at that.

SHE CHUCKLES

As a mortgage adviser, I commanded respect.

You are in a position of authority, so you have to be able to show that

you are responsible and professional.

But I have no need for these clothes any more.

Because I don't work in that kind of professional environment.

And I may never work in there again, so...

The recession hit the financial service sector hard,

and like many others, Judy lost her job.

My whole life changed.

My whole lifestyle changed.

Everything just stopped.

I used to entertain.

I used to have people for dinner once a week.

I used to have a party once every two months.

I used to always have people running around the house, you know,

coming for coffee and having lunches...

And everything, just overnight, has just stopped.

I could no longer afford to go on holiday,

buy myself nice things for the house,

give the children treats and take them places,

so everything just had to be cut right down to the bare minimum.

Now Judy's only just managing to keep up with the household bills.

I like my house, but the problem is it's lacking tender loving care,

which I can't give it at the moment,

because I just don't have the money coming in.

I had a leak, and I haven't been able to get that sorted.

So I just feel it's crumbling, a little bit like myself.

So Judy needs to find a job.

The trouble is that she feels her age is counting against her.

And she's finding it almost impossible to get back into white-collar work.

I feel completely lost, and because of that,

and knowing I have to take any job that is out there,

I can see myself having to do factory work or cleaning

or anything like that,

because these are the only kind of jobs that perhaps are open to me.

Whoa, this is hard to sift through, this.

This is just crazy.

The specially designed factory means that we are able to measure how fast

the workers are sorting by weight,

but we are also recording how fast they are picking.

We're seeing the raw waste come in,

which is rather smelly, rather sticky.

We've seen the picking not quite as enthusiastic as it was before.

The company expects its workers to pick at around 40 items per minute.

Violeta's one of the few who has nearly achieved that speed.

But since the mixed rubbish was put on the belts,

Rob's rate has plummeted.

It's just too much, isn't it?

You know? If it was a bit slower, it might be all right, but...

The smell is absolutely horrendous.

I'd rather be at home in poverty, I think. Yeah.

So far the teams have been picking from the conveyor belts full of

mixed waste at full speed for an hour.

Oh! I can't keep up.

And the strain is starting to tell.

You see all this plastic? Take the plastic out.

Yeah. Leave the can. You're wasting too much time, OK?

OK. Yeah. That's it, right.

They're being a bit random with what they're collecting.

They're not being too specific with what they are picking up,

which affects the value of the material at the end of the day.

But accuracy isn't the only problem.

Qasim has been looking at a moving conveyor belt for over an hour.

I was feeling sick.

Took the break, came back to the toilet.

I tried to hold it back, back, back, and I just couldn't.

It just all came out.

I thought that maybe machines or robots are doing

this kind of job. It's a really hard job, you know?

It looks easier maybe, but no, it's a very hard job.

Oh, Leon, what are you doing, man.

Getting newspapers, getting paper, getting paper.

With just 15 minutes to go,

everyone is trying to pick up their speeds so that their team wins.

I thought I would much more prefer to clean a hotel than go through

people's crap, but I'm loving it.

Absolutely loving it.

Oh!

Sabotage.

You're going to lose, my brother.

KLAXON WAILS

CHEERING

It made me think I wouldn't want to do that as a full-time job.

Come on. That's good.

God, I stink!

Our workers have finished their second day.

Between them they've sorted through 20 tonnes of rubbish,

picking five tonnes of paper, tin and maybe some nasty surprises, too.

So will the workers have shown the skills they need to have done well

as pickers?

Welcome back, again. And thank you all for your effort.

I would just like to give you your wages.

Zachary...

They've worked for 3.5 hours on minimum wage at the pre-April rate,

which earns them a total of ?23.45 before tax.

My God!

They should be on at least ?8, ?9 an hour.

And it is a really tough job.

Once again, Mike's analysing the data.

An experienced picker could sort an estimated 390kg of

recyclable material in the same amount of time.

How did our workers do by comparison?

This is a pretty horrible task.

But some of our workers, they just got stuck in.

Here we have some pretty good scores.

604kg.

401kg.

446kg.

They weren't distracted. They were focused.

And they moved an incredible amount of waste.

So, some individual workers have done well,

but how have they performed as teams?

An experienced three-man team could sort an average of 333kg per hour.

So, while our least productive team only sorted 290kg,

our top teams have done better than expected.

Four of our six teams exceeded the target, which was a real surprise.

We've got one particular team that exceeded the target by over a third.

And when you look at who was in that team, you've got one particular guy,

he's a real grafter. He digs in

and keeps up that pace right throughout.

And he's on the team that's at the top of the leaderboard.

So Martin, Vicky and Rob are today's winners.

Well done, green team. Well done, guys.

How did the other teams do, and who will be going home?

Hannah, Violeta and Yilmaz picked a third less than the winning team.

Blue team, I'm afraid you counted less waste than the other teams.

But for me, one person stood out.

And that was Violeta.

I would like Violeta to stay.

APPLAUSE

Unlike most other workers, her picking rate was consistently high.

Violeta really does deserve another chance to show what she can do.

So while her team-mates will be going home...

You know what? I've loved every second of it. I'll take that away with me. No, I don't mind.

Hannah, you should be really proud. It's been a great experience for me,

you know? I've learned a lot the last two days, three days -

I learned a lot. Now, it's some win, some lose.

So time to go home.

Violeta's work rate has meant she'll be back for the next task.

I have a dream. I came here in England with some goals.

And maybe this second chance, maybe this is a step in my life.

Next time... You get the 25A from up here, yeah?

..the pressure is on...

Oh, BLEEP! ..as our workers are thrown into the world of

casual labour. Faster, faster, faster, faster.

They'll go from field...

I'm struggling, I am.

..to factory. Whoa, whoa.

No!

Sorry, I got it everywhere.

Finding out just how hard it is to produce food for our tables.

It's just gone all mad on me.

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Nice to meet you.