Marcin works twelve hours a day, six days a week, sometimes seven. The big fellow does not complain. It's been fifteen years since this Pole was washing cars by hand, at the evil name Magic Hand Car Wash in South London.
Spray with cleaner, sponge once, then a second time, rinse with pressurized water, then start again with the next car, all without glove or boots on this day of November … A 6 pounds (7 euros ) the washing, the double to clean also the interior, the price is extremely competitive.
Marcin is the symbol of a certain drift of the British economy, where the informal sector, often fed by an immigrant labor force, reigns supreme. The evolution of car wash stations in the UK is a parable, which tells the story of the country's productivity problem, working conditions, immigration from Eastern Europe and, in the most extreme cases , the development of modern slavery.
In fifteen years, the automatic washing rolls of petrol stations have practically disappeared from the country, replaced by hand washing. This is a rare example of derobotisation of a profession. In this sector, across the Channel, the man is more competitive than the machine. "We have gone from an intensive capital-intensive industry to a labor-intensive industry"says Ian Clark, of Nottingham Trent University, author of several studies on the subject.
Unfair competition
Brian Madderson of the Car Wash Association (CWA), which represents the official companies in the sector, is not fooling around. "We face unfair competition with small washing stations that do not pay their VAT, nor the minimum wage, nor social contributions … In the service stations, we often see cleaning machines abandoned, replaced by a group of people doing the job by hand. "
According to him, at least a thousand automatic cleaning stations had to close for a decade, knowing that the investment in rolls costs nearly 50,000 euros.
The Magic Hand Car Wash in South London is a good example of this gray economy. Stuck in the backyard of a small building, installed for years, the company seems official. Signs display prices, a loyalty card system is offered. But the payment is only in cash and the four employees that day – two Portuguese, one Romanian, one Polish – are paid for by hand by their Albanian boss.
