Cleaners to up ante on contractors

Cleaners will ramp up pressure on retail contractors they claim are price cutting and contributing to public health hazards.

United Voice, the union representing cleaners, released a report on Wednesday showing budget pressures and cost cutting was compromising public health.

It quoted a 2010 report which said not replacing cleaning tools such as sponges and mops spreads a thin layer of E.coli over surfaces.

The union said contractors were cutting costs by not replacing damaged and broken equipment, using discount chemicals and not giving workers proper equipment.

A 2010 audit of contract cleaners found 42 per cent of cleaners had never been given health and safety training from their employers, the union said.

More than 50 per cent of cleaners left premises dirty and toilets unsanitary because they did not have enough time and 70 per cent said they had to finish work on their own time because of increasing workloads.

United Voice national secretary Louise Tarrant said cleaners would take to the streets on Wednesday around the nation to bring attention to problems with retail contracting.

The union is pushing for retail cleaning contractors to get on board with its Clean Start campaign, so companies can compete in a fair environment and provide a safer environment for the public.

"What we've discovered in shopping centres is an increasing drive to the bottom of the contractors which is having a really big impact not only on cleaner's lives, their livelihoods and their safety but at the end of the day the shopping safety and enjoyment of the public," Ms Tarrant said.

"There's a very big problem in shopping centre contracting that means price cutting has become such an extreme practice that that's now starting to impact on the quality of cleaning."

United Voice has been a vocal critic of contractor Spotless, which is refusing to engage in the reform process, similar to that agreed by contractors to CBD commercial office space, the union said.

Ms Tarrant called on the company to sit down and work with the union to find solutions.

The ASX listed company was a block to reforms in the sector, she said.

"Spotless is really critical to us to advance a reform agenda in this sector.

"They basically become the real impediment to being able to change the sector for the better."

Cleaners will rally around the nation, with much of their anger directed at Spotless, Ms Tarrant said.

"Instead of being the poster child of reform they (Spotless) really are the bad boy of the sector," she said.

The union earlier this year launched federal court action against Spotless, claiming the company had breached the Fair Work Act by trying to introduce Work Choices-style contracts through the back door.

Spotless rejected the union's claims and says the real problem in the industry is sham contracting.

Sham contracting, where companies operate under a complex layer of companies that undermine award conditions and pay rates, were the real threat to the viability of the industry, the company said.

For more, go to http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8261192/cleaners-to-up-ante-on-contractors