These three women were simply trying to argue for fair pay, in my opinion.

The women – Lesley Leake, Marice Hall and Karen McGee – sparked a debate over outsourcing when they went on strike for 14 weeks after their school in West Yorkshire was turned into an academy earlier this year.

Known as the “Kinsley cleaners”, the women said they had their wages cut from £7.85 an hour to the minimum wage of £7.20 once the contract switched from Wakefield council to C&D Cleaning in April.

The women, who between them have more than 28 years’ experience cleaning Kinsley primary school, returned to work earlier this month. But on Thursday they were told they had been sacked.