Clean and clear
Their task appears mundane. It is. After all, isn’t it as simple as taking out a wet brush and cleaning the glass-panels? But standing on a cradle, several hundred feet above, watching the bustle-hustle of ant-like people and vehicles, their time at work is a different experience altogether. As they say, it’s a different life up there. Rajeev Nair writes
They call it a cradle. Dangling up in the air, it gently rocks with the wind. Sometimes, when the sun shines above with simmering ferocity, a tired worker would gently slide down on to its comfort.
It is a safety cubicle between an unexpected plunge to death and a lift to life.
The cradle is a work-station for the high-rises. The window-cleaners add gleam to the glass panels of towering skyscrapers from the support of the cradle.
Standing on it, Durga Bahadur and Abdul Rahim, employees of Modern Building Maintenance (MBM), look self-assured as they clean the glass-panelling of the high-rise.
There is a mechanical precision to their work. They dip a brush onto the water-can, lift it up, wipe the glass pane clean, and gently tug on the controls to shift position. The routine is repeated.
For all the expertise they show on the job, their hands-on experience working on high-rises is hardly four years. From Nepal, Bahadur has not done this kind of job before, nor has Rahim, a Burmese. Yet, they are unfazed — their confidence primarily coming from the on-the-job support and training they received over the years.
They don’t look down, not that the height unnerves them. They look ahead, and if there are people beyond the glass walls they clean, they are not aware of their presence.
Being out there, they say, is a different experience. A thought their supervisor Abdul Gafoor underscores.
Out there it is a different life, and they have come to love it, Bahadur and Rahim add, which hearing from them standing in the sun, protected by a workman hat, and perched on to the cradle, is not a forced prattle.
At least, it didn’t sound so.
There are risks involved in the job. The cradle could get stuck. The workers could get tired. They could faint. They could find the balance of their support tilt. And in a way, their being up there and continuing to do so, is all about being safety-conscious.
A fact that is often over-looked.
Safe window cleaning is an issue that must be addressed at the design and construction stage explains M Kamarajan, safety and training manager, ETA-Ascon Dubai. “Mishaps often happen when provisions for window cleaning are added on as an after-thought, which could lead to many compromises.”
There are clearly defined procedures in allotting provisions for cradles (technically, building maintenance units or BMUs). “Sometimes, due to various factors these are not considered to varying degrees,” explains Kamarajan. “Mostly, it could be cost concerns or out of aesthetic reasons.”
BMUs are more relevant to new buildings while scaffoldings are the only resort when it comes to cleaning and maintenance services on the older buildings. The BMUs can be easily dismantled and can thus be stored on the terraces of the high-rises, which would also have roof-trolley to facilitate the movement of the BMU.
The external BMUs, including the cradles, are required by law to be tested by a third party at least every 12 months, which again is not always strictly practised. This arises from many reasons, the most obvious one being cost. Most builders conveniently rest the case of maintaining the BMUs, and let out cleaning contracts to third party agencies.
Employees from these companies thus have to work on cradles and BMUs owned by the builder, which may or may not be maintained properly. The workers should also be technically capable of assembling a BMU, if it is stored dismantled. In a severely competitive environment, the cleaning company that insists on records of BMU maintenance could easily lose the deal, which puts them at the mercy of nothing but luck. The other option is to hire BMUs, meaning escalating costs.
“Our workers are always advised to first test the cradle, and simulate all the possible worst-case scenarios before they actually start the job,” says Kamarajan.
The cradle, by itself, has a safe make-up. It is protected from all four sides, and over and above, the worker is hooked up to a safety harness to prevent falls. The most common mishap with cradles is they getting stuck in the middle of nowhere, or the cradle suspension wire snapping leading to its crash.
“There is no reason why it should happen in a well-maintained cradle because there is an additional safety rope, which glides it down to safety,” says Kamarajan. “Even if the motor that controls the movement of the cradle fails, and the suspensions snap, and there is a free fall, the second safety rope will prevent a fall.”
The workers on the cradle also have a facilities to communicate with the ‘outside’ world. But sometimes it could happen that the worker would faint because of the sun, and thus cannot seek help.
Hence it is very important to ensure that a “buddy” always keeps a constant watch either from the ground or from the roof top. The cradle workers are never left to fend for themselves.
“They are very vulnerable to the heat stress from the hot environment, which is why we insist that they carry with them lime juice mixed with salt and sugar in equal proportions,” says Kamarajan.
The task of window cleaning is sometimes rendered difficult in buildings that are uniquely shaped. “Certain constructions hinder the smooth flow of the cradles. In such cases vacuum pads are to be used to drag the cradle closer to the wall and thus do the cleaning,” explains Kamarajan. “It is a very tricky position, and the workers must be extra-vigilant.”
Acrophobia — fear of heights — is a no-no in window cleaners, and that is the chief criterion in selecting window cleaners. “But it is important that we train them,” says Kamarajan. “You cannot hire anybody and just push them on to a cradle. They must be equipped to handle any crisis that could happen at work.”
Window-cleaning works on high-rises could take months depending on the area to be covered. “It is a different world out there. Others work just a glass pane beyond you, and yet you cannot talk to them or hear them. You cannot call out to them, if you need help. In a cradle, you are on your own, most of the time.”
– April 2003
