LHMU - UNION ACTIVE

Cleaners are marking International Justice for Cleaners Day today by celebrating the success of their Clean Start: Fair Deal for Cleaners campaign.

The Clean Start Agreement guarantees 1500 of Melbourne’s low-paid office cleaners annual pay rises of between four and eight percent, and doubles the minimum shift to four hours.

The agreement is with 12 of Melbourne’s largest contract cleaning companies, including Spotless and ISS. 

‘The Clean Start campaign has been an epic David and Goliath battle. Three years ago this invisible workforce took on cleaning contractors and some of world’s biggest property owners to demand justice and respect,’ said LHMU State Secretary Jess Walsh. 

‘After hundreds of noisy demonstrations across the CBD, cleaners have finally won fundamental change to an industry that has until now been defined by poverty wages and impossible workloads.’

‘Importantly, it also allows the industry to make a Clean Start: to focus on giving owners and tenants a quality service and cleaners enough time to do their jobs properly,’ said Ms Walsh.

‘Cleaners are very happy about four hour shifts, more job security and that our wages will go up. There’s a lot of hope. Our families will be happier. Cleaners have been living hand to mouth. This takes away a lot of the anxiety,’ said Melbourne office cleaner Hellen Izvernariu.

The new four-year deal includes:

-    DOUBLING the minimum part-time shift from two to four hours a day, doubling the minimum weekly wage from $199 to $427.

• -    4-8 PERCENT annual wage increases, with the first on 1 July 2009.
• 
  
• -    JOB SECURITY. Cleaners to be retained when new contractors take over at the building they work in, removing a major worry for these workers.
• 
  
• -    FAIRER WORKLOADS. A process to reduce the currently average workload of 1000 square metres – four family homes – per hour.
• 
  
• ‘This is a huge victory for cleaners. They won because they stood together and demanded justice and respect,’ Ms Walsh said.

The Clean Start: Fair Deal for Cleaners campaign began in 2006 in response to a ferocious price war that has engulfed the contract cleaning industry for more than a decade.

Contractors would often bid for cleaning contracts at a loss, aiming to make a profit by slashing cleaners’ hours and increasing their workloads.

The innovative campaign has won unprecedented support from across the community, including Deputy Premier Rob Hulls who helped launched it and prominent Melbourne social justice activist Bishop Hilton Deakin.