Working-poor cleaners tell of despair
19 Oct 2011
From AAP: FOR cleaners, among Australia's working poor, the prospect of having enough to make ends meet, let alone enough to live on at retirement age, is bleak.
FOR cleaners, among Australia's working poor, the prospect of having enough to make ends meet, let alone enough to live on at retirement age, is bleak.
Living on a Knife's Edge, a report by United Voice, the union representing retail cleaners, highlights the despair of many battling to pay for the basics of life on an hourly rate of $16.57.
One tells of his disbelief, sadness, misery and shame, feeling he is disadvantaging his children by working as a shopping-centre cleaner in Queensland, living in shared accommodation, with holidays just a dream.
Another, a mother, highlights her depression as Christmas draws closer and she is forced to borrow money from her teenage son to cover lunches as she battles to pay the rent and bills.
Close to 20 per cent of Australian workers are categorised as the working poor, up from 14.5 per cent three decades ago.
About 7000 retail cleaners nationally fall into the category, with 68 per cent saying they are uncomfortable on their current wage, 92 per cent worried they won't have enough money saved to retire at age 65 and 86 per cent feeling insecure about their financial future.
United Voice national secretary Louise Tarrant said wages were not keeping pace with the cost of living as pressure mounts on people's job security.
"It's a real pincer movement in many ways, with many people feeling quite insecure but also just incapable of paying for the basics, much less paying for things like holiday and retirement," Ms Tarrant told AAP, coinciding with the report's release today during Anti-Poverty Week.
"Things that used to be standard expectations of workers are suddenly becoming unattainable luxuries."
But there's also the other related impacts - the stress on families, personal anxiety and the toll on people's wellbeing and health.
Welfare Rights Centre director Maree O'Halloran, who advises on social-security law, said a lot of people come through the centre who had been hospital, hospitality or shopping-centre cleaners.
"They are often women in their 50s, they've worked for 30 years or more and now their bodies just can't take it any more," Ms O'Halloran told AAP.
"You look at these people who have worked all their lives, trying to do everything that's expected of them in society, bring up their families, slogging it out, day-in and day-out and then to find that after all of that they can find themselves on the unemployment scrapheap in their late 50s, trying to live on $243 per week."
The nation's industrial relations system should be delivering more than low wages for such workers, with the social-security system there as a backup, Ms O'Halloran said.
The report comes as retail cleaners for contract cleaning group Spotless prepare to lodge an application on Wednesday to take protected industrial action.
Ms Tarrant said the company had refused to sit down and talk about wages and other concerns despite approaches over the past year.
Workers had lost patience and hoped the company would come to the party, she said.
"Their hands have been forced," Ms Tarrant said.
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