Emanuel Gomes died just hours after his cleaning shift. Why was he working?
Like many other migrant workers in the UK, Gomes knew he couldn't live on statutory sick pay. So despite illness, he kept working
Emanuel Gomes spent the last day of his life cleaning an office in the Ministry of Justice (M0J). It was late April, at the height of the Covid-19 outbreak and most of the civil servants had been sent home. Gomes and his colleagues were told that as essential workers they should keep coming into work in the central London offices.
On 24 April, Gomes became so sick at work that a colleague, Amadou (not his real name), had to help him to get home. Amadou says: In the last few days he was really ill. He lost his appetite, he had phlegm and he seemed to have a fever. I helped him home ... by the time we got to Victoria station he was so sick he didn't know where he was."
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