Blacktown: Westpoint cleaners start industrial action in bid for more money
16 Dec 2011
By BEN McCLELLAN, Blacktown Advocate Cleaners at Westpoint wore union t-shirts instead of their uniforms for an hour on Friday from 12pm in their bid for higher wages.
THEY are the people who clean up after you in the food court, empty the endlessly filling bins and deal with the dirty and sometimes disgusting public toilets.
Fed up with low pay and an increasing workload six cleaners at Westpoint wore union t-shirts instead of their uniforms during one-hour of industrial action at the Blacktown shopping centre today from 12pm.
The cleaners were immediately ordered by management out of public view to clean “back of house”.
Unionised cleaners employed by the centre’s cleaning contractor, Assetlink, voted last week to take the action as part of their campaign for better conditions and wages.
United Voice, which represents more than 8000 cleaners across NSW, said similar industrial action at shopping centres in the city resulted in a 30 per cent hourly pay increase.
The union said cleaners were on an award wage of $16.57 an hour but deserved an hourly wage of around $21-22, which cleaners in the city now enjoy.
Cleaners at Bankstown, Blacktown and Parramatta shopping centres and retail cleaners at Centro Bankstown, Westfield Parramatta and Westpoint Blacktown voted to join the national campaign of bans and stoppages kicked off by Spotless cleaners two weeks ago during the Clean Start campaign.
Blacktown cleaner David Westrip said his colleagues want their families to be able to fully participate in Australian life.
“It affects you when you can’t afford to give your kids things that many Australians take for granted and a lot of us are in that position,” Mr Westrip said.
“We want decent wages, job security and better conditions. The bottom line is cleaners want to be treated with a bit of respect.”
United Voice said cleaners walk up to 20km in a single fulltime shift and workloads were increasing under pressure from a “contracting crisis” with companies promising to do more for less to win lucrative shopping centre work.
United Voice Assistant Secretary Peter Campise said Westpoint charged more than other centres for its retail space and “gauged” a lot from the community.
He said Assetlink had refused to negotiate an enterprise agreement entitling cleaners to better wages and he was calling on the community to help the campaign.
Should cleaners be paid more than $16.57 an hour?
Assetlink national projects manager Kevin Wybron said extra staff had been rostered on to deal with the action and disruption to cleaning at the centre would be minimal.
He said only a small number of unionised employees, less than 10, would participate in the action.
Mr Wybron said shopping centres wanted cleaners to be paid under modern awards and the company wasn’t obliged to pay above the award rate.
In a memo to staff on Tuesday Mr Wybron said only 42 members out of 80 staff across three centres at Blacktown, Rouse Hill and Indooroopilly in Queensland voted on the action with 36 voting in favour.
He said industrial action in Queensland was called off and no action was taken at Rouse Hill.
Mr Wybron also warned staff that anyone who stopped work during industrial action would have their pay docked.
Westpoint Centre manager Michael Charlton said the action wouldn’t disrupt trade.
“We have been assured by Assetlink that plans are in place to deliver the same standard of cleanliness within the centre for the comfort of our customers, retailers and employees,” he said.
“There are 325 businesses located within Westpoint. Of these, 155 are small businesses who, together with the other retailers and service providers based at the Centre, employ more than 4,000 people from the local community
“We are also focused on ensuring the industrial action doesn’t prevent the local community from accessing these services, or the ability of employees who are based at the Centre from making a living.”
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