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Revealed: UK’s COVID heroes among hardest hit by cost of living crisis

Losing their homes, struggling for food – cleaners, health and transport workers say strikes are their only option

Revealed: UK’s COVID heroes among hardest hit by cost of living crisis
From left: Ivan Andino, a cleaner for Mitie; Alan Hiscutt, a care home manager; Glenn Carrington, a senior paramedic. | Ivan Andino, Alan Hiscutt, Unison
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At the height of the pandemic, as hundreds were dying each day, Ivan Andino was travelling across London on a crowded Tube carriage to clean an empty office. 

Ivan works for Mitie, one of the UK’s biggest outsourcing companies, and cleans Vodafone’s global headquarters, which take up five floors of a glossy Paddington high-rise. 

While Vodafone’s staff were sent home when COVID cases were peaking, Mitie insisted Ivan and his colleagues continue cleaning, rather than placing them on furlough.