News

Christmas shoppers today witnessed hundreds of cleaners and their supporters occupy a food court at Chadstone shopping centre in Melbourne, as they kicked off a series of strikes to fight brutal workloads and poverty pay. The largest shopping centre in the Southern Hemisphere was brought to a standstill as cleaners working for Spotless made their voices heard in one of the first of many major strikes to hit many of Victoria’s busiest shopping centres this Christmas.



“Up until now, cleaners have been an invisible army — they have silently got on with their crucial jobs while struggling to cope with impossible workloads and trying to survive on award wages,” says Jess Walsh, State Secretary of United Voice, the Cleaners Union. ”For more than a year they have asked Spotless to talk to them about safe workloads and liveable wages, but Spotless continues to ignore them. Spotless has pushed its cleaners to breaking point and today, they snapped. Spotless cleaners are silent no more.”



“Spotless has left cleaners with no option but to strike, and they want shopping centres like Chadstone to know about the unbearable pressures they are working under,” she adds.



“Thanks to Spotless, Christmas shoppers could be forced to wade through dirty food courts and contend with filthy toilets as strikes roll on through the festive season,” warned Walsh.



Industrial action began with a strike at Corio Village in Geelong on Friday, before cleaners at another 10 shopping centres notified Spotless of their plans to strike. Strikes could also hit Westfield Doncaster, Westfield Fountain Gate, Werribee Plaza, Broadmeadows Town Centre, Epping Plaza, Victoria Gardens, Stockland The Pines, Hoppers Crossing Shopping Centre and Wendouree Shopping Centre.



“For years, cleaners have stood by as Spotless ratchets up their workloads to back-breaking levels, while rewarding them with nothing more than poverty pay,” Walsh says. “Spotless’s refusal to even talk with the cleaners who prop up its healthy bottom line means that shoppers may be wading through some stomach-churning scenes at their favourite malls this Christmas.”



“Chadstone, The Fashion Capital could become Chadstone, The Rubbish & Grime Capital.”



Cleaners also today unveiled their fleet of mobile billboards the size of semi-trailers, which will graphically warn shoppers about the possibility of dirty toilets and food courts as a result of Spotless’s refusal to back realistic workloads and living wages. Last week, cleaners released a report that found that more than half of Spotless shopping centre cleaners surveyed do not get enough time to clean properly, forcing them to cut corners to keep up with impossible workloads. They warned that shoppers may be at risk of exposure to dangerous bacteria like Psuedomonas and E Coli as a result.



Brutal workloads are also contributing to a spate of injuries, heart disease, depression and breakdowns, according to another report, by the Uniting Church (http://bit.ly/qgsUMV).



The report found that poverty pay — cleaners earn as little as $16.57 an hour, or around $600 a week — means that more than 80 per cent of those surveyed cannot support a family on their wages. More than half said they were forced to cut back on groceries, and nearly three quarters are struggling to pay bills and debts. Spotless holds more shopping centre cleaning contracts than any other company in Victoria, boasting nearly 20 per cent of the market. In the year to June, it posted a 34.7 per cent rise in revenues to $433.8 million for its Australian and NZ cleaning operations.



See National Nine news clip: http://youtu.be/reDfMsdxe24