Cleaner is told to change her job or die - then something incredible happens

When cleaner Sofia Torres began to suffer with health problems, not being able to claim sick pay made her sicker. In 2022, she told the Mirror that being unable to take time off eventually led to her needing an operation.“We should be valued enough that if we get sick, we can take the time we need to get better, and not feel abandoned,” she said. “That is why we need fair sick pay.” Today, three and a half years later, Sofia is celebrating winning a landmark employment rights campaign. From today, when the Labour government’s Employment Rights Act becomes law, over 10 million workers will get access to Statutory Sick Pay from day one of illness for the first time. A further 1.7 million workers will become eligible for Statutory Sick Pay for the first time.“I’m very proud about this,” Sofia told me when we spoke this week. “I’ve been campaigning on this with the Safe Sick Pay campaign and the government has listened. This is a mountain we have climbed together. I was working for a cleaning company when I needed surgery. I got no sick pay. I received nothing. I had to ask friends for loans to pay my bills. For a month and a half, I had a sick note but no money to pay for medicines, transport, bills. It was terrible. Now, no-one else will have to go through this experience.”Sadly, the victory has come too late for one of the campaign’s most determined campaigners, Alan Barton, a medical device engineer who was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2021. When he became ill, he had recently started a new job, so wasn’t entitled to company sick pay.‌View 5 ImagesCampaigner Alan Barton passed away last year(Image: Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror)After time off for surgery, Alan ended up working on and off through chemotherapy and taking out loans. When we last spoke to him and his wife Julie, he was having palliative chemotherapy and facing eviction. “Facing all this, having financial problems is the last thing you need,” he said. Alan passed away last year at the age of 66, after se...