Cleaners' strike to hit Christmas shoppers

Christmas shoppers at some of Victoria's busiest retail centres will be forced to contend with "filthy" toilets and food courts as cleaners ramp up strike action in their campaign for better pay and conditions, a union has warned.

Hundreds of cleaners have threatened to walk off the job from midnight tonight at 10 Victorian shopping centres including Chadstone, Westfield Doncaster and Westfield Fountain Gate unless cleaning contractor Spotless agrees to negotiate with them.

Jess Walsh, state secretary for United Voice, the cleaners' union, said cleaners were being paid $16.50 an hour, which was a "poverty wage".

"The cleaners just are hitting the wall and have had enough," Ms Walsh said.

"They've been seeking talks with Spotless all year and Spotless has refused point blank so that's why the cleaners are taking this action."

Despite the industrial threat, Spotless has assured customers that its shopping centres will remain clean and tidy during the festive season.

Ms Walsh said industrial action began last Friday at Corio Village in Geelong, and cleaners at 10 other shopping centres could legally take industrial action from midnight tonight.

Those shopping centres are Chadstone, 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.

Similar strike action is taking place in South Australia, NSW and Queensland.

Ms Walsh said strikes would be called at short notice and she could not say which shopping centres would be targeted on which days.

"We're expecting that in the lead up to Christmas that the shopping centres that Spotless cleans are going to get dirtier and dirtier," Ms Walsh said.

"The cleaners would like to be able to do a good job and they would apologise to the shoppers for what they are about to find but, without the cleaners, shoppers can expect to be seeing filthy toilets really and food courts that are just disgusting. What they're saying to their company Spotless is 'You can avoid all of this by just sitting down and talking to us about the problems that we have'."

Ms Walsh said the cleaners had been attempting to negotiate with Spotless for the past year, without success.

However Spotless said in a statement that shopping centres cleaned by Spotless, including Westfield centres, would remain "clean and tidy" before, during and after the festive season.

"Spotless continues to abide by the umpire's rules with its cleaners receiving three wage increases in the past 18 months, including a wage increase on 1 July 2011," the statement said.

"The award will again be reviewed in early 2012 with an increase expected in mid 2012. Spotless cleaners have safe workloads, the right equipment and other entitlements including shift, overtime, penalty rates and superannuation.

"Spotless continues to call on the United Voice union to work with it and other stakeholders to design constructive changes to the cleaning services award and submit these to the industrial umpire, Fair Work Australia."

The cleaners will also today unveil a fleet of mobile billboards warning shoppers about the possibility of dirty conditions at shopping centres.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/cleaners-strike-to-hit-christmas-shoppers-20111213-1os40.html