Contract cleaning in Ireland is a multi-year service agreement between a buyer and a cleaning provider that delivers a fixed scope of recurring cleaning work, priced as a monthly retainer, backed by a service level agreement (SLA), measurable KPIs, and ERO-compliant wages paid to Garda-vetted operatives.
The Optus Glean promise: predictability
Three pillars. Three commitments. No exceptions.
Predictable cost. One fixed monthly fee, set against a defined scope and an annual indexed review. No variable hours. No surprise invoices. No padded callout charges. Budgeted once, paid by Direct Debit, reviewed once a year.
Predictable presence. The site is cleaned every day it is meant to be cleaned. A named primary cleaner is rostered to your contract, supported by a named relief who is already vetted, inducted, and trained on the same colour-coded system and IPC standard. The schedule does not depend on whether one person is available on one day.
Predictable freedom. A single point of accountability. One contract. One named manager. One number to call. Cleaning is no longer a problem the site has to manage — it is a service that runs.
Why cleaning in Ireland is structurally hard to get right
Most cleaning provision in Ireland — including in healthcare-adjacent settings — is delivered by a workforce that is structurally part-time and casual. A significant proportion of operatives across the sector also work as healthcare assistants in nursing homes, residential care, and acute hospitals. Cleaning shifts are typically taken when healthcare shifts are not available, and released when they are. This pattern is consistent with CSO labour data on accommodation, food, and administrative-support employment, and it is the underlying reason that buyers across Ireland encounter inconsistency from agencies they have contracted in good faith.
The pattern is reinforced by two background pressures specific to Ireland. Housing affordability limits the catchment for any role paying at or near the minimum wage. The Contract Cleaning Employment Regulation Order rate of €14.80 per hour for 2026, set under the Labour Court's sectoral employment framework, sits close enough to flexible care-sector pay that operatives drift toward whichever shift pays slightly more on the day. Both pressures pull cleaning staff away from contracted shifts and toward casual healthcare work.
The result, from the buyer's perspective, is the experience most practice managers, facilities leads, and procurement officers in Ireland describe: a clean that is half-completed when the contracted cleaner is available, missed entirely when they are not, and accompanied by recurring conversations with the agency about cover that may or may not arrive.
This is the structural problem Optus Glean is built to solve. Our operatives are fully PAYE-employed with guaranteed weekly hours, paid leave, and pension contributions under Irish auto-enrolment. They are paid above the ERO floor deliberately — because the structural reliability of the service depends on the cleaner choosing to remain in the role rather than rotating through casual healthcare shifts. A named primary cleaner is assigned to your site, supported by a named relief, both Garda-vetted and trained to Optus Glean's documented HIQA-aligned IPC standard.
What is contract cleaning?
Contract cleaning is fundamentally different from one-off or ad-hoc cleaning. A contract is a long-term commercial relationship, usually 12, 24, or 36 months, where a single cleaning provider takes full responsibility for a defined scope of work at a defined frequency, to a defined quality standard, for a defined monthly fee. Buyers choose contract cleaning over in-house cleaning or piecemeal providers for three reasons: price certainty, operational accountability, and regulatory cover. A contract cleaner absorbs the complexity of recruitment, Garda vetting, payroll, holiday cover, supervision, equipment, consumables, insurance, and compliance, and delivers a single monthly invoice against a single scorecard.
In Ireland, contract cleaning is governed by a specific Employment Regulation Order (ERO) administered by the Workplace Relations Commission, which sets sector-wide minimum wage rates, overtime premia, and sick pay. Buyers who procure cleaning without understanding ERO compliance inherit a commercial and reputational risk. Optus Glean contracts are priced on the basis of at-or-above-ERO pay, itemised in every proposal, and evidenced in payroll records available for client audit.
Contract cleaning service scope
A typical Optus Glean contract cleaning agreement covers the full recurring cleaning requirement of a site or estate. Scope varies by sector, but the core inclusions are:
- Daily, weekly, and periodic cleaning of all specified areas (office, welfare, circulation, reception, production, clinical)
- Washroom servicing, consumable replenishment, and hygiene reporting
- Hard floor maintenance (sweep, mop, scrub, buff) and periodic deep cleans
- Carpet care, spot treatment, and annual or bi-annual deep extraction
- Internal glass, reception, and high-touch point disinfection
- Kitchen and canteen cleaning to HACCP standards where applicable
- Waste management, bin liner changes, and recycling segregation
- Periodic high-level dusting, vent cleaning, and light fitting wiping
- Supervisor site visits, quality audits, and BICSc-aligned inspection reports
- Holiday cover, sickness cover, and named account management
- Chemicals, equipment, PPE, and consumables (inclusive or itemised, client preference)
- Out-of-scope reactive response (spills, incidents, event support) at pre-agreed fixed monthly fees apply
Every contract includes a detailed cleaning specification matrix, typically formatted against BICSc (British Institute of Cleaning Science) Cleaning Operating Procedures and, for healthcare environments, aligned to the National Standards for the Prevention and Control of Healthcare-Associated Infections published by HIQA.
SLA and KPI framework: what we commit to
This is where Optus Glean separates from the market. Most contract cleaners in Ireland publish glossy service lists but no performance commitments. Procurement teams are left guessing what "good" looks like. Our contracts publish the commitments up front and report against them every month.
Response times
| Incident type | Commitment | Reporting |
|---|---|---|
| Critical spill or contamination event | On site within 2 hours (Dublin & commuter counties), 4 hours nationwide | Incident log closed within 24 hours |
| Quality complaint (logged in writing) | Investigation opened within 4 working hours, remedy within 24 hours | Root cause report within 5 working days |
| Staff absence or no-show | Relief operative on site within 3 hours | Absence root cause in monthly report |
| Ad-hoc task request | Acknowledged same day, delivered at next scheduled shift or on pre-agreed SLA | Task log in weekly supervisor report |
| Contract manager callback | Returned within 1 working hour | CRM log and monthly response-time average |
Quality audits
Every contract site is audited monthly by an Optus Glean supervisor using a BICSc-aligned checklist mapped to the contract specification. Audits score each area on a 0-to-5 scale and aggregate to a site audit percentage. Sites operating below 92% trigger an automatic remedial action plan and an additional audit in the following week until score is restored. Clients receive the full audit PDF, with photographs, within 3 working days.
Monthly KPI report
Every contract client receives a standardised monthly KPI pack covering: audit score and trend, attendance percentage and staff turnover, complaint volume and mean time to close, defect count and rectification time, consumable usage versus budget, near-miss and incident rate, training compliance rate, and sustainability measures including chemical dosing accuracy and waste segregation compliance. The monthly report is benchmarked against contract KPIs with red/amber/green status and a written commentary from the account manager. No buyer should sign a cleaning contract without this level of transparency.
Contract cleaning pricing structure
Optus Glean prices contract cleaning as a tiered monthly retainer, not an opaque annual fee. Every proposal itemises labour (with ERO-compliant fixed monthly fees apply and on-site hours), management overhead, supervision, consumables (if included), equipment amortisation, insurance, and QA. This structure makes contracts comparable like-for-like and eliminates the surprise-invoice problem that dogs the sector.
Typical pricing ranges for 2026 are:
| Environment | Typical pricing | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Office / corporate HQ | €0.08 – €0.25 per m² per clean | Typically 3-5 cleans per week |
| Retail / showroom | €0.20 – €0.45 per m² per clean | Daily, often out of hours |
| Healthcare / clinical | €0.35 – €0.75 per m² per clean | HIQA-aligned, colour-coded, audited |
| Hospitality & leisure | €0.20 – €0.60 per m² per clean | Depends on occupancy and turndown |
| Education (schools, colleges) | €0.10 – €0.30 per m² per clean | Term-time scheduling, summer deep clean |
| Staff fixed monthly fees apply (typical) | €18 – €32 per operative hour | Inclusive of wage, on-costs, management, QA |
| Supervisor / contract manager | as a fixed monthly fee per site | Included pro-rata in retainer |
All pricing is exclusive of VAT. Volume discounts apply across multi-site portfolios. Optus Glean issues fixed monthly pricing after a site survey.
Compliance & accreditation
Irish public-sector and enterprise procurement increasingly demand a specific stack of compliance evidence before a contract cleaning award. Optus Glean meets or is in active pursuit of every one:
- Contract Cleaning Employment Regulation Order (ERO) 2023 — all operatives paid at or above the statutory minimum rate administered by the WRC
- Irish Contract Cleaning Association (ICCA) — operating to ICCA member standards; formal registration in active pursuit
- BICSc — operational procedures aligned to BICSc Cleaning Operating Procedures; supervisor training in progress
- CIMS (Cleaning Industry Management Standard) — management system mapped to CIMS framework
- ISO 9001 (Quality) — management system implemented, certification targeted within 12 months via NSAI or equivalent certification body
- ISO 14001 (Environmental) — committed to achieving ISO 14001 within 12 months
- ISO 45001 (Occupational Health & Safety) — committed to achieving ISO 45001 within 12 months
- Safe-T-Cert — health and safety management accreditation in pursuit for construction-adjacent contracts
- Garda vetting — 100% of client-facing operatives and supervisors are Garda vetted via the National Vetting Bureau before first shift
- Revenue eTax Clearance — current eTax clearance certificate held and renewed annually, as required for public-sector awards
- HACCP — food-sector cleaning delivered under documented HACCP protocols
- HIQA-aligned — healthcare cleaning specifications aligned to HIQA National Standards for the Prevention and Control of Healthcare-Associated Infections
- CPV classification — registered against eTenders CPV codes 90910000 (cleaning services), 90911200 (building cleaning services), and 90919200 (office cleaning services)
- Insurance — €6.5M public liability, €13M employer's liability, professional indemnity available for specification-led contracts
Who we work with
Contract cleaning is not one service; it is a family of services shaped by sector. Optus Glean operates across every major B2B environment in Ireland:
Office & Corporate HQ
Daily or out-of-hours cleaning, reception, meeting rooms, welfare, glass, waste.
Retail & Showrooms
Shop floor, window, stockroom, customer washroom, opening-hours sensitivity.
Healthcare & Clinical
GP practices, clinics, primary care, HIQA-aligned IPC protocols, colour-coded systems.
Hotel & Hospitality
Public areas, back-of-house, kitchens, guest turndown support, event cover.
Industrial & Manufacturing
Warehouse floors, production areas, welfare, loading bays, HACCP environments.
Education
Primary, secondary, third-level; classrooms, labs, washrooms, term-time scheduling.
How to switch contract cleaning providers
Most buyers inherit their cleaning contract and tolerate underperformance because the switch feels disruptive. It is not. A well-run transition takes 14 to 28 days and is almost invisible to the end user, provided the incoming provider manages TUPE, induction, and soft-launch correctly. The Optus Glean mobilisation plan:
- Week -4 to -3: Discovery and TUPE preparation. We collect ELI (employee liability information) from the outgoing provider, map existing contracts and wage rates, and issue TUPE consultation letters to affected staff under the European Communities (Protection of Employees on Transfer of Undertakings) Regulations 2003.
- Week -2: Specification lock and equipment mobilisation. Final cleaning specification signed off, equipment procured, consumables ordered, uniforms issued, COSHH and RAMS documents lodged with the client safety officer.
- Week -1: Induction and soft launch. Transferred and new operatives complete site-specific induction, Garda vetting re-confirmed, supervisor walkthrough with client, shadow shifts run in parallel with the outgoing provider where possible.
- Day 1: Go-live. Full service from shift one. Contract manager on site for the first three working days. Daily walk-round audits for the first two weeks.
- Day 30: 30-day review. First full audit pack, KPI report, and client review meeting. Specification adjustments applied without contract variation if within scope.
TUPE is a right for transferred staff and a commercial safeguard for the buyer. Done well, it protects continuity, preserves institutional knowledge of the site, and removes industrial relations risk from the procurement.
Contract cleaning services across all 26 counties
Optus Glean delivers contract cleaning through a national operations hub with regional supervisor networks across all 26 counties. Every contract is managed by a named account manager with direct supervisor reporting lines and escalation to head office within one working hour. Whether you operate a single Dublin HQ, a retail estate across Munster, or a multi-site healthcare network, you work with one named point of contact, one specification, one monthly invoice, and one KPI pack.
Frequently Asked Questions About Contract Cleaning
What is contract cleaning and how does it differ from one-off cleaning?
Contract cleaning is a recurring service agreement, typically 12, 24, or 36 months, with a documented scope, agreed frequency, an SLA, and fixed monthly pricing. One-off cleaning is a single job priced and delivered in isolation. Contracts provide price certainty, a named account manager, Garda-vetted operatives, quality audits, and KPI reporting that a one-off job cannot.
How much does contract cleaning cost per square metre in Ireland?
Indicative 2026 pricing ranges from €0.08 to €0.25 per m² per clean for office and low-complexity environments, €0.20 to €0.60 per m² for retail, healthcare, and hospitality, and bespoke pricing for industrial or clinical sites. Most buyers are quoted as a monthly retainer covering labour, consumables, management, insurance, and QA. Optus Glean provides fixed monthly pricing after a site survey.
What should a cleaning contract SLA include?
A robust SLA includes a detailed scope and specification, frequency of each task, response times for ad-hoc and reactive incidents, quality audit frequency (BICSc-aligned), a KPI scorecard, defect rectification windows, monthly performance reporting, service credit or remedy provisions, a TUPE-compliant exit clause, and named contacts on both sides.
What KPIs do professional contract cleaners report on?
Standard KPIs: audit score, attendance and turnover, defect count and mean time to rectify, complaint volume and closure time, consumable usage versus budget, near-miss and incident rate, training compliance, and sustainability measures such as chemical dosing accuracy. Optus Glean issues a monthly KPI pack with RAG status and trend data to every contract client.
How do TUPE regulations apply when switching cleaners in Ireland?
The European Communities (Protection of Employees on Transfer of Undertakings) Regulations 2003 (TUPE) generally apply when a cleaning contract transfers. Operatives assigned to the contract transfer to the incoming provider on existing terms with continuity of service. Optus Glean runs a structured consultation, collects ELI from the outgoing provider, and mobilises with zero pay or service-continuity loss.
Are your cleaners paid in line with the Contract Cleaning ERO?
Yes. All Optus Glean operatives are paid at or above the minimum rates set by the Contract Cleaning Employment Regulation Order in force at the time of delivery, as administered by the Workplace Relations Commission. We publish our ERO commitment in every tender response and provide payroll evidence on request.
Is Optus Glean ICCA-aligned and ISO 9001/14001/45001 certified?
Optus Glean operates to ICCA member standards with formal registration in active pursuit. Our management system is being implemented against ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001 with certification targeted within 12 months. BICSc and CIMS alignment is operational today. Current accreditations, Garda vetting status, and insurance certificates are available on request.
How quickly can you mobilise a new contract?
Standard mobilisation is 14 to 28 days from contract signature, covering TUPE consultation, recruitment, Garda vetting, induction, equipment, and soft launch. Emergency mobilisation in 5 to 7 days is possible where staff transfer under TUPE. Complex healthcare or industrial sites typically need 30 to 45 days.
Do you provide night, weekend, and out-of-hours cleaning?
Yes. Optus Glean operates 24/7, 365 days a year. Shifts are commonly scheduled 05:00-09:00, 18:00-22:00, or overnight. Weekend and bank holiday cover is quoted as standard and premium-hour rates are built into the contract price up front. No surprise invoices.
What insurance cover do you carry?
€6.5M public liability, €13M employer's liability, and professional indemnity available for specification-led contracts. Certificates are issued to every contract client on commencement and refreshed annually. Higher limits can be arranged for large public sector or industrial contracts.
Related contract cleaning services
Contract cleaning connects to several of our specialist services, which can be bolted on to a single agreement for a consolidated invoice:
- Office Cleaning — the most common contract cleaning environment
- Retail Cleaning — out-of-hours shop floor and customer area service
- Healthcare Cleaning — HIQA-aligned, IPC-led, colour-coded
- Industrial Cleaning — warehouse, factory, production-area contracts
- Window Cleaning — scheduled interior and exterior glass
- Carpet & Floor Cleaning — periodic deep-clean programmes
- Washroom Services — hygiene, consumables, sanitary bin service
- Guide: How Contract Cleaning Works — buyer-side explainer
- Guide: Contract vs In-House Cleaning — make-or-buy analysis
- Guide: ERO & Contract Cleaning Compliance — WRC wage rules explained
- Guide: TUPE in Cleaning Contracts — handover mechanics
How Optus Glean handles staff shortages
Every Optus Glean contract is staffed on a redundancy model rather than a single-person model. A named primary cleaner is assigned to the site at contract start. A named relief is assigned alongside them. Both are PAYE-employed by Optus Glean, both are Garda-vetted, both are inducted on the site's specific layout, access protocols, and colour-coded equipment system, and both are trained to the same documented HIQA-aligned IPC standard. Substitution is built into the contract from the first day, not arranged on the day cover is needed.
Sick day cover. When the primary cleaner is unable to work, the named relief is deployed. The site site contact is notified by 06:30 on the morning of the absence by SMS or email, with the name of the relief who is attending. The relief follows the same task list, uses the same equipment, and finishes within the same window. The standard of clean is unchanged because the relief was prepared for this scenario before the absence happened.
Annual leave cover. Annual leave is rostered weeks in advance and the relief is scheduled to cover the full leave period. The site is informed at the start of the leave period — not on the morning leave begins. This is the same model used in clinical rota management: known absences are pre-staffed, not improvised.
Long-term cover. If the primary cleaner is absent for more than two weeks (extended illness, parental leave, bereavement leave), cover is drawn from the wider trained bench rather than relying on the single named relief. The site is kept informed of the cover plan, the named individuals involved, and the expected duration. Continuity of standard is maintained because every operative on the bench is trained to the same documented standard.
Permanent reassignment. If the primary cleaner moves to a new permanent role within Optus Glean — promotion, relocation, retirement — the relief is promoted to primary on a planned timetable, a new relief is trained on the site, and both are introduced to the site before the handover takes effect. There is no day on which the site discovers, after the fact, that their cleaner has changed.
Substitution is Optus Glean's operational problem, not the site's risk to absorb. The buyer pays a fixed monthly fee for a defined scope to be delivered, every day it is meant to be delivered. The mechanism by which we deliver it — primary, relief, bench, retraining — is our cost to manage and our risk to carry.
Last reviewed: 2026-05-06