Do EasyJet F/A´s have to clean toilets?

[X-Crew]

Is it true that EJ cabin staff are responsible for cleaning toilets and other plane areas on turnarounds in order to cut costs?
Does this also apply to other low cost operators like Ryanair, Go and VEX?

[cabin lad]

I'm not sure about cleaning toilets but they do clean the cabin. Isn't that awful! :rolleyes:

[SectorBabe]

Thankfully, we don't have to clean the toilets as I think that would be a step too far! As for cleaning the cabin, I know it sounds really bad, but I find the pax seem to change their pig-sty habits when they realise that it is actually me who gets down on her hands and knees to scoop up their crushed-up pringles with a safety card!!! :eek: :eek: (Believe me, not a wonderful sight!!)
But in order to keep costs down in a low cost airline, these things have to be done!!

[flapsforty]

Eeeeeeeerrrrm, cleaning the cabin? Cleaning the toilets?

On our not low cost airline, ground cleaning staff are supposed to do the cleaning, we only change the headrest covers.
In theory....... :D

In practice, it happens about twice a week that we have the choice of either doing the cleaning ourselves or face a massive delay.
Usually when we have arrived late at an outstation, when the AC meant for us arrived late at home base or when faced with a nasty slot.

I ask the crew what they want to do, and the response is always the same: Let's do it ourselves!

And just for these scenarios, part of my standard equipment is a pair of very pink, very heavy duty rubber gloves. :D
As soon as the rest of the crew sees me whipping them out of my bag and realizes that the Chief Wagon Dragon does the toilets, they clean the rest of the AC without a murmur. ;)

If occasionally cleaning the bogs with my own "lily whites" gets everybody to their destination on time, I don't mind at all.
But I do feel for those colleagues who always have to do this, 'cause a pretty job it sure ain't!

[euroboy]

...only when they have brought their electric toothbrushes with em! :D

[X-Crew]

SectorBabe, from your post I assume you have to clean the cabin inflight. When do you start cleaning (ie 30 min. before descent, whilst descending?).
Except to replace headcovers, pick up fallen rubish from the carpet, remove rubish from seatpockets is there anything else envolved in your cleaning duties?

Does anyone know if this also applies to Ryanair, Go and VEX?

[cabin lad]

Flapsforty,

You are not doing yourselves any favours here nor the rest of the crew. I would not like to be railroaded into cleaning duties when it is not part of my job. If you are hit with a heavy delay then it is not your problem but the problem of the airline and they will have to rectify it. If the airlines do take a delay due to cleaning staff then there is a problem which needs to be sorted. All airlines like to have on time departures so this should motivate your ground services department to get their act together. :mad: :mad:

[Ditch]

CAPTAIN AIRHEAD..

I think Flaps Forty and others on this post realise that SOMETIMES a team effort of "stepping outside your role" is required to ensure that life on board isnt any more difficult than it already is. We all need to help each other every day - The only way to survive as an FA and enjoy the work is to be FLEXIBLE ;)

[cloud nine]

I agree with you on this one Ditch, although I wouldnt put my hand up and vote for the cleaning of the toilet, it wouldnt really be a problem if I had to do it. I mean, FA"s have to hold those sick bags and smile whilst the pax delivers the back the airline food to us. So to be honest, I dont think that is any different to cleaning the loo's. Have to take the good with the bad.

[cabin lad]

Cloudnine and Ditch,

COULDN'T AGREE WITH YOU MORE!

It is essential that you do help each other out and team work is very important. However, I am picking up on the point of what flapsforty said: they feel sorry for their colleagues who ALWAYS HAVE TO DO THIS.

That is the difference - therefore they are creating the problem. :rolleyes: ;)

There is a difference between flexibility and taking advantage of good will.
:eek: :eek:

[ 18 November 2001: Message edited by: Captain Airhead ]

[flapsforty]

Hey Airhead (nice nick btw ;) ) I get the feeling that the words are getting in the way of the fact that we all mean the same thing here.

What I meant with "colleagues who have to do this all the time" was FA's working for comps where DIY-cleaning is SOP. It's not with our mob, and as Ditch says, flexibility name of the game.
And to agree with Airhead, if I ever had the feeling that the company was trying to take advantage of our willingnes on this front, I'd immediately "cease & desist" any loo cleaning. :D

[brockenspectre]

As an SLF may I please comment on this thread. I am totally shocked that cabin crew should be (a)expected or (b) occasionally require to undertake cleaning duties. Is it not enough that cabin crew ensure safety and comfort of SLF (who are paying for the service in-cabin and a high proportion of flight revenue) by waiting on em hand and foot? I have yet to fly with the "lo cost" airlines but I am still stunned that cabin crew should be expected to do toilet duty!!

:eek:

[deepvainpain]

We shouldnt critisise cabin crew from any airline for having to clean the toilets, as we all have to do it in some way or another. I fly long haul and we have to clean the toilets in flight to a certain extent. Let me tell you, on a 12 hour flight those toilets can bet pretty mingin and it is better that we give them a bit of a clean than listen to all the pax bitchin about how crap they are!! ;)

[SectorBabe]

X-Crew, We do what is called a 'proactive sweep' of the cabin at 20 mins prior to landing.
This involves collecting any unwanted items of rubbish, newspapers and inflight magazines. ( We have to collect the mags as we have a contract with the advertisers to hand out the mags on every sector, so it saves us time if we can collect them from the pax, instead of doing it on the short turnaround)
Once the seatbelt signs are on for landing, we go and secure the cabin and encourage pax to hand us any further rubbish.
Once all the pax are off, you go through your section of the a/c and empty any further rubbish from the seat pockets and from underneath the seats. We then collect it all in a gash bag and offload it!

That is basically it! No toilets whatsoever!!
The more we can get on the flight, the quicker we can hopefully do the turnaround, therefore keeping costs low!! :D :D
(Naturally, we can call the cleaners in if the a/c is really in a disgusting mess!! There is a limit!! :cool: :cool: )

[Who has control?]

As SLF, I'm surpised that Cabin Crew have to clean the cabin but agree with posters that say 'we sometimes have to do the dirty work to get the job done' It happens in all walks of life. So long as we don't find cleaners as cabin crew!

What might help is if each seat-back pocket contained a bag specifically for rubbish. I now put all my discarded napkins, plastic bags, cups etc into the sickbag & leave it on the seat. It must look ominous , but its better than throwing the rubbish on the floor. I did suggest this on a JMC feed-back form, but heard nothing. So if anyone wants to take up the suggestion, there's no copyright on it.

[sweety]

Yes, I was thinking about suggesting it myself - having the bag especially for rubbish in the seatpockets. You see, in our airline we don't normally clean the cabin, leave alone toilets, ourselves. So I used to get annoyed with changing the sickbags, because pax were putting their rubbish in them. :mad:

Now, if we would have those "rubbishbags", it would be better and more convenient for all of us. :)

What a good idea!

[Capn Notarious]

The answer is PAX education. Not that they will believe you. SOMETHING LIKE THIS.
By keeping the cabin tidy and safe. We your dedicated F/As are helping you to be comfortable and we can pass on savings and keep the costs down for you.

Remember the oak starts with the acorn

[basketeer]

Hey guys , If you get paid loads of money ,and you get to keep your job (after recent events) then i dont mind picking up a few old newspapers ! , its not as if we have to shampoo the carpets or anything !

[cloud nine]

LOL basket.....You made me laugh, I just had a vision of all these well groomed FA's down on their hands and knees shampooing the carpets!!!!
To be honest even that would not change how much I want to get in... :D

[chilled]

Hi all, I work for easy and I don't clean the loos! :p

I do a security check on them and thats it the cleaners come on at our main bases and do the loos for us.

As for the cabin, I find most of our SLF are helpful and hand most of their rubbish to us, so even on turnaround, it aint that bad.

happy fling all :)

[ 24 November 2001: Message edited by: chilled ]

[ONTPax]

cloud nine wrote:

You made me laugh, I just had a vision of all these well groomed FA's down on their hands and knees shampooing the carpets!!!!

Don't laugh. The way corporations are always trying to come up with goofy ways to save money, that day may not be too far off.

:rolleyes: :eek:

[OverRun]

Interesting topic. Time to stir though - given the pathetic response.

The top level aviation people I know, who have made it in the world, have cleaned toilets - even after reaching "high status" in the business. Not too many of the corporate types with polished shoes and minature mobile phones have ever done this of course (the same people who are currently down the labour exchange looking for a job).

The last mob who thought aviation owed them a living worked for some funny Orstralian mob - Chanceit? MMA? Hamilton Bus Lines? ah! I remember now, Ansett.

[The Guvnor]

Nikki Lauda - the ex-owner of Lauda Air - used to pilot his aircraft and kept brushes in the flight decks, insisting that all the other flight deck crew members assist the cabin crew with keeping the aircraft clean.

Having seen the mess that accumulates in some flight decks, that's a darn good idea!

[flyblue]

...too bad his other darn good ideas almost sent the company down the crapper, together with his popularity (he has been kicked out last year for the joy of Lauda Air's employees).

[Deep Cover Gecko]

At least some flight deck help out with the cleaning!! It used to annoy me when they told the ground staff that the crew would do the cleaning (without asking anybody else) so that we could make the slot etc, and then sit down with their cups of tea and watch everybody else do it. Thankfully not all of them are like that, and on one rare occassion, we were allowed to sit down with drinks whilst they did the cleaning. Thanks guys! :D

[moosey]

Back to the point of a rubbish bag, what a fab idea. I do often wonder after a long haul flight, what a mess some pax's houses must be judging on the state of their seat area. We wouldn't through rubbish on the floor at home, so why do they do it on board!?

[katiecorrigan]

Because they can, and they think that the crew are their personal slaves!

Katie.

[Who has control?]

Lets have roomservice - if you like the idea, suggest to your company. I'm sure you have such a scheme. Tell them that it, er, improves the company image, its something that other airlines don't have, it will save on cleaning time and COST (they love cost-cutters).

I promise not to claim any royalties on the idea, but if you see a guy down the back, reading a pilot mag, stuffing his trash in a sick-bag - say hi!

Katie C, the reason that SLF chuck litter on the floor is because there is nowhere else to put it. I appreciate that you all do a grand job coming round & collecting rubbish, but, for example, everything on the meal tray is wrapped in something, so we end up with a plastic bag for the bread roll, the top of the butter, cutlery bag, top off of the main meal, top from the water/drink, salt & pepper packets, the top from the sweet and it is inevitable that some of this rubbish will fall on the floor. so thats why I put it all in the sick bag & why IMHO a rubbish bag is a good idea.

[Deadleg]

Not cabin crew but I trust you won't mind me commenting? In the UK Regional I fly for(Captain) the cc are'nt required to clean toilets. One fine evening we had managed to get back into position to regain schedule however, cc were'nt ready to board and were asking for the cleaners back.I quiried why and it was to replace the toilet paper roll!Asked why they could'nt do it they said hygeine so I did it.Now I'm not trying to cause trouble but can anyone else see the difference between cleaning the bog and changing the roll?I did'nt get sick afterwards and I mentioned the event(no names or flt nos) to others in the company who were amazed at the attitude of their fellow cc.
Merry Christmas to you all and a happier new year. Always a privilage to work with fellow professionals.