Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to draw the attention of the House and the government to, and to focus for the next few minutes on, one of the most poorly-paid groupings within the Australian economy, and I am speaking of cleaners, people who quietly go about their business in the background or after hours, doing their work in such a way that allows all others to get on with the matters at hand. While we are cosily tucked away in our beds at night, you will see a flurry of activity in this place and in office blocks all around Australia of dedicated people who ensure that when we turn up in the morning to the office it is clean and it is tidy, and we can get on with our work.

Sunday 15 June was International Day for Cleaners. It is a day celebrated by cleaners. International Cleaners Day was first celebrated in the United States when cleaners campaigned for better conditions and exercised their democratic rights. The day is an annual occasion used to highlight the plight of cleaners round the world—their working conditions, remuneration and the hours they work.

Many people may not be particularly interested in such things, considering it all just a little too mundane, perhaps menial, tedious or insignificant, but for the people concerned it means a lot. For the people that work their butts off to ensure that we have clean offices—and, as I said, office blocks around the country are spotless every morning—let us take a few minutes to stop and take a look at the lives of the many, many people around the nation. It is said that the average city office cleaner is required to clean 1,000 square metres, a space equivalent to four suburban houses, each and every hour. Hectic pace too often means workplace injury. In New South Wales in 2006, for example, cleaners had double the injury rate of other workers. Shifts are usually short—maybe three hours—and at times least likely to be family friendly. They may be at 3 o’clock in the morning or at 10 o’clock at night or at any time in the evening at which families usually like to come together, if they possibly can.

This is something I can particularly appreciate. My mother was a cleaner, and I am very proud of the work that she did. She cleaned office blocks in Adelaide’s CBD for many years. And, while I appreciate that she was working her heart out to bring money into the household—a lot of hours for not a lot of money, mind you—I also appreciate that families need time together. Children need time with their parents and parents live to spend time with their children.

In my case, my mother did not do it because she particularly liked the work. She was committed to working for the benefit of her family and took what work she could, as did my father, as do hundreds of thousands of other Australians who perform casual work or are contract employees around the country every day. Forgoing lifestyle, they work the hours they are offered without job security or great financial incentive, with the hope of making life just that little bit better for themselves and their families.

Within Australia, the cleaning industry has been slimming down as a result of fierce competition within the sector. The slimming has been targeted at the cleaners themselves, of course, consisting of what we see as ‘more work, less time’—the double whammy. There is a campaign being undertaken within the industry by cleaners and their professional associations. It is called the Clean Start: Fair Deal for Cleaners campaign. The focus of the campaign consists of seven key elements: first, fair hours—in other words, replacing those very short shifts with those of a minimum of four hours, and opportunities for shifts of six hours where possible; second, fair workloads—the introduction of fair and reasonable, should I say ‘responsible’ and transparent contracting practices throughout the industry that factor in civilised workloads for cleaning staff; third, fair pay—improved pay rates over time toward a national rate and a minimum shift rate; fourth, fair job security, as with the completion of each and every contract cleaners face acute job insecurity; fifth, fair treatment—improving training and occupational health and safety and getting some respect, of course; sixth, fair leave, where they have portable long service leave across the industry; and, finally and very importantly, fair rights—effective dispute resolution procedures to help solve workplace issues and ensure cleaners’ rights to join and be represented by their professional association, generally the LHMU.

Fair Hours has been the principal focus of International Cleaners Day this year. The campaign had some success. Fifty-one contract cleaning companies have adopted the Clean Start: Responsible Contracting Principles. This is where cleaning companies that have the contracts work together with the workers to ensure that they take on these responsible work practices. This is a very good start and it is necessary for the industry to establish itself on a sustainable footing.

Sustainability is a bit of a catchword these days. It crops up in discussions concerning the agricultural sector, the building industry, the automotive industry and even power generation. But sustainability is also relevant to more discreet, less obvious and less powerful industries such as cleaning and the employees who keep the industry going. Workplace relations are important. The demands that are placed on the workforce cannot reasonably be expected to create a situation wherein employees have a high risk of injury and burnout, resulting in the loss of personnel to the industry and the economic consequences that injured cleaners can be forced to endure. Sustainability is something that industry does not embrace voluntarily. Usually there is a cost to be factored in, a cost of perhaps a little less sweat and a little less productivity, a slightly higher cost for the same work performed, and maybe a greater effort made to accommodate the needs of the workforce.

The needs of the workforce must be taken into consideration when developing work practices, especially given the circumstances in which cleaners work and the hours that cleaners are on the job. As I was saying, it is not just industry that can have a hand in improving the sustainability of the industry and its workforce. We all know from the last few years how much a government can influence the nature of workplace relations. If we look back over the last few years, we can see what sort of a climate can be created by a government, a climate in which perhaps greedy people, or those who are not there to do the right thing, can bore their way into Commonwealth legislation and the workplace relations framework, ensuring that people do not get to exercise their full rights. But we should also remember that government is a highly substantial market for cleaning contractors, and government departments are highly significant in the establishment of contracts that point not only toward polished floors but also to a decent work environment for the cleaners themselves and the hours they work.

The campaign this year, the focus being on fair hours, is a campaign that all of us can take part in. You might ask, ‘How can we take part in it?’ It is a campaign that anyone who has something to say about a contract, anyone who has some input into a contracting policy or anyone who has the opportunity to express their views on a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay can become involved in and promote for the betterment of the cleaners and the industry’s sustainability in its own right. I ask the House to consider this motion in the context of the Fair Hours campaign—to consider the working conditions of the people concerned, their hours, the times of the night they work and the degree on which we rely on their meticulous standards and attention to detail in the performance of their work. Australia is not a nation built on a tradition of using people, chewing people up and spitting them out, or of taking what you can get out of people irrespective of the cost that they will have to endure. We as a nation are much more than that: fairer, considerate and supportive of our fellow Australians in one of the few truly egalitarian societies the world has to enjoy.

This motion acknowledges the important contribution of cleaners. I would also acknowledge the important contribution of the cleaners in this House, who turn up every morning in the early hours to ensure that our offices are spotless. Those of us who come in early in the morning see them just finishing their shifts. Most of them have been up all night. Many of them are from non-English-speaking backgrounds. They work in one of the lowest paid industries that is offered. (Time expired)

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