Ofelia

"It's not like it used to be," she explains. "Before it was like a family for us cleaners, but now it's different."

"I feel like I'm isolated."

The problems began for Ofelia when her hours were savagely cut, first from 37 hours a week to 25. "And then suddenly they changed it again, to 22-1/2 hours," she says.

"I have lost so many hours," Ofelia says. "And I have lost around $100 a week."

"So it's difficult at the moment," she says. "Fortunately, my husband is working, but even if you put our salaries together, it's not enough. Everything has gone up."

"I'm happy to be a cleaner, but things are so different now. I feel so depressed and sometimes I feel like crying," Ofelia adds.

"How come it's like this?" she asks. "We've been working hard all our lives, and it's still not alright. Why? We should be better off."

And while her hours have been cut, her workload has become tougher and tougher.

"I haven't been able to get home on time these past two months. They give me everything that's impossible to clean in four and a half hours."

"No one is helping me, but if something is wrong then it's all my fault," Ofelia adds.

For Ofelia, the poverty pay and the mounting workload has had a deep personal impact.

"I told my friend last week that I'm becoming a loner," she says. "I used to be a happy-go-lucky person, but I'm not anymore."

But she hasn't lost hope, not yet.

"I have to be positive, and I'm positive things can change."

"But we have to fight for change," Ofelia declares. "If we don't fight, what's going to happen? Things are going to get even worse."

"And other cleaners need to get involved and speak up, too."

"After all", she says, "there are worse off cleaners than me."

Ofelia - Millennium, Westfield Airport West