Wendy

"We just don't get the time to do what we need to do anymore," explains Wendy.

At the heart of the problem is the simple fact that her shopping centre has grown larger and larger — but the number of people she works with has remained the same.

"The shopping centre has certainly got bigger," Wendy says.

"It has doubled in size. Actually, it has more than doubled in size and we still have just the two cleaners doing the detailing," she adds. "That means the workload has doubled, for sure."

Wendy works at night, attending to all the little details — like cleaning the escalators and all the glass — that shoppers may never notice, but which make a huge contribution to creating an impression of a smart and hygienic shopping centre.

"In order to keep a centre sparkling, these are things that should be done every night," Wendy says.

"And they are done every night, but they're not done as thoroughly as they could be and that's because we just don't have the time."

Wendy says that often leaves the work falling short of her own high expectations. "The standard has gone down, and I think that's the same everywhere."

"It's a real shame because I'm proud of my job, or at least I used to be," she adds.

But as workloads have grown steadily, pay has not.

"The pay is terrible, considering how hard we have to work," says Wendy.

Her heart goes out to the cleaners forced to raise a family on a cleaner's wages.

"That would be very difficult," she says. "I wouldn't like to be faced with it, that's for sure."

But Wendy is fighting for a better future for cleaners in every one of Australia's big shopping centres, and has no doubt what it takes to win a fight for fair pay.

"We've got to stand up for ourselves and stick together," she says. "Just stick together and fight."

"Some people say it's not going to happen," Wendy adds, "but that just makes you dig your heels in and tell them: ‘yes, it is going to happen'."

"After all, the bosses are getting pay rises, so why can't we?"

Wendy Millennium, Westfield Geelong