Christmas shoppers face deadly bacteria: new report

The Health Hazard report reveals that cleaners must take shortcuts to meet Spotless’s demands, and the result can be dirty toilets, unclean food courts and overflowing rubbish bins —potentially allowing dangerous bacteria like E Coli and Pseudomonas to grow.

“Spotless cleaners are proud of their work, but say they are under huge pressure to cut corners to keep up with impossible workloads and that pressure is even greater at times like Christmas,” says Jess Walsh, State Secretary of United Voice, the Cleaners Union.

“This report finds that cleaners just can’t get their jobs done up to their high standards, and more and more shoppers are having to endure filthy toilets and dirty food courts,” she says.

Click here to read the Health Hazard report into hygiene at our shopping centres

“As well as looking revolting, there is a very real health risk here: filthy toilets and dirty food courts are a haven for dangerous bacteria and disease,” Walsh adds.

“It’s time Spotless worked with cleaners to fix this crisis, before someone gets seriously ill.”

The report, produced by United Voice, is based on surveys with 380 cleaners. It finds that 53 percent of Spotless cleaners surveyed at shopping centres like Chadstone, Westfield Doncaster and Werribee Plaza say they do not get enough time to clean properly.

It reveals that 44 per cent of Spotless cleaners reported not getting enough time to adequately clean toilets, and 42 per cent do not have time to clean food courts properly.

One cleaner reported having to use the same mop in toilet and food areas.

The lack of adequate time to clean can foster the spread of E Coli and Pseudomonas, the report warns. E Coli can be spread over surfaces like food court tables and can lead to cramps and bloody diarrhoea, and be fatal to small children and elderly people.

Pseudomonas, a water-borne pathogen, can be found in sinks and toilets and can cause chicken-pox like skin irritations, ear infections, blindness, facial paralysis and even death.

“Right now, shoppers are flocking to malls to get their Christmas shopping done, but risk picking up a nasty disease simply because Spotless refuses to give cleaners the time they need to do their jobs well,” Walsh says.

Cleaners working for Spotless have voted to take strike action over the busy festive season as they fight to win safe workloads and fair pay. Around 94 per cent of cleaners who voted in an AEC ballot backed industrial action.

“Right now, hundreds of cleaners are condemned to poverty wages and brutal workloads, but Spotless refuses to talk to them about safe workloads and a living wage,” Walsh says.

“Cleaners have no option but to take strike action to get Spotless to take them — and the health of shoppers — seriously,” she says.

Spotless cleaners are poised to commence strike action at Chadstone, Westfield Doncaster, Westfield Fountain Gate, Werribee Plaza, Broadmeadows Town Centre, Corio Village, Epping Plaza, Victoria Gardens, Stockland The Pines, Hoppers Crossing Shopping Centre and Stockland Wendouree in Ballarat.

Data reveals that Spotless cleaners are suffering stress, injury and breakdowns as their employer pushes them to clean more and more in less and less time. They are also struggling to raise their families on as little as $16.57 and hour — around $600 a week.

Spotless holds more shopping centre cleaning contracts than any other company in Victoria, boasting nearly 20 per cent of the market. In the year to June, it posted a 34.7 per cent rise in revenues to $433.8 million for its Australian and NZ cleaning operations.