Cleaners complete a half marathon a shift
The union representing commercial cleaners claims cost cutting by shopping centres had forced workers to complete the equivalent of a half marathon during a single shift just to get their job done.
Louise Tarrant, National Secretary of United Voice, says unreasonable workloads were forcing cleaners to abandon quality standards and expose themselves to a higher risk of injury. Shopping centre cleaners have the second highest injury rate of any worker.
The union has just released the results of a study involving 23 cleaners working in 16 mid-to-large centres in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia wearing pedometers during a “typical” working week. Those taking part in the study were employed by contractors Spotless, Glad and Assetlink.
The study claims that on average, a cleaner in a large shopping centre travels 13.6 kilometres on foot per shift or 58.8 kilometres over a 38 hour work week. Further, cost cutting meant that some cleaners had to literally run to get their job done.
The report claims that cleaners are required to complete “lap times” or rotations that cover a particular distance in a specific time frame, usually 15 minutes. “Significant penalties” are imposed by the centres on contractors if workers do not comply with lap times.
In high traffic areas or food areas the rotations are once every five minutes to limit the risk of public liability insurance claims. The union claims that in an effort to cut costs and win tenders, contractos are placing unreasonable workloads on cleaners and making it impossible for them to meet quality standard. For example, cleaners report that they were finding it almost impossible to keep high traffic areas clean, dry and hazard-free in the timeframe specified.
Ms Tarrant says “a race to the bottom in contract cleaning” had seen shopping centre owners and cleaning contractors cutting cleaner numbers to save money.
“This means that there is fewer staff on the floor; fewer people to do the actual work. This forces the cleaners on the floor to be literally run off their feet trying to get their work done in short, timed rotations, sometimes as short as five minutes.
“For all this walking, cleaning companies and building owners won’t pay decent wages.”
“There are health and safety catastrophes waiting to happen in our shopping centres. At the moment, the catastrophes are for cleaners who are suffering from the second highest injury rates — only lower than those working in concrete construction. It’s not surprising with such high workloads.”
“One cleaner told us that she had to clean 35 toilets in 20 minutes. Could you do that? Could you believe a toilet was actually clean if it was only cleaned so quickly? These high workloads mean that the centre isn’t as clean as a cleaner would like, but it also raises the question of whether a centre is clean enough for shoppers to buy Christmas presents in.”
The national industrial campaign targeted shopping centre owners Westfield and cleaning employer, Spotless. United Voice claims the industrial action was triggered by the refusal of Spotless to agree to discussions about wages and conditions.
Spotless, which maintains 16 shopping centres, says the union’s claims for a change to wages and conditions are unrealistic and would only cause suffering to workers in the form of lost wages in the run up to Christmas.
