Shopping centre cleaners to strike

CLEANERS who earn just $16.57 an hour at two of the Sunshine Coast's major shopping centres will strike during the busy pre-Christmas buying spree in a bid to improve their wages and job security.

About 50 cleaners at Sunshine Plaza and another 16 at Kawana Shoppingworld were among 350 Spotless cleaners who voted overwhelmingly for strike action.

Results released last night of a ballot overseen by the Australian Electoral Commission saw 94% vote to take the industrial action protected under Fair Work Australia.

"The ballot win shows the anger of retail cleaners at the irresponsibility and disrespect of the employer, Spotless," Louise Tarrant, the national secretary of United Voice, the cleaners' union, said.

"Spotless cleaners have been trying to talk to their employer for over a year about the problems in the retail cleaning industry, but the company keeps refusing."

The union wants Spotless to address what it says is chronic understaffing and low wages in the retail cleaning industry.

It aims to see all workers on Clean Start contracts that guarantee their jobs regardless of which party holds the contract and lifts their wages in line with the $21 an hour (now $19) that CBD office cleaners will receive from next year.

It was expected that industrial action would begin next week as part of a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of the race to the bottom that had seen cleaners' jobs squeezed by a ferocious price war in the contract cleaning industry.

"The downward trend in the industry has negative implications for all stakeholders, with the trap of cost-based competition leading to massive employee turnover, a lack of training, an unstable and transient workforce, security risks, Occupational Health and Safety problems and lower standards of cleaning,'' the union said.

The union's Clean Start retail shopping centre campaign targets contractors Assetlink, Glad and Spotless.

On October 26, Fair Work Australia gave approval for cleaners with Spotless, Australia's largest retail cleaner, to vote on strike action at shopping centres across Queensland.

Cleaners employed by Glad and Assetlink subsequently lodged an application for protected industrial action, which was approved for four shopping centres in Queensland on November 11.

http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2011/11/23/shopping-centre-cleaners-to-strike-fair-work/