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Sacked Cleaners Receive No Redundancy And Told To Move To New Zealand To Work

Sacked cleaners receive no redundancy and told to move to New Zealand to work

Four cleaners who lost their jobs have been offered replacement positions in New Zealand instead of redundancies.

Unions have described the offer as “immoral”, which will see the workers, all women aged in their 50s, out of work and without a payout.

Cleaners offered jobs in New Zealand

The women work full-time for cleaning company Spotless on a contract, based in Wollongong NSW.

The contract ends this week, but the company has not offered redundancies.

Instead, Spotless has offered the workers a casual position in Nowra – an hour’s drive away from where they live.

The company has also offered the women positions in New Zealand in fields that are unrelated to cleaning.

‘Too young to retire’

One of the affected workers is Lynne Davies, who worked for Spotless for 14 years.

She says she is “disgusted” with the way the company has treated her.

She said she is too young to retire and will find it hard to get another job.

Another worker, Panayota Tzolakidis said the job opportunities offered by Spotless are not suitable.

“I’m not an electrician,” she said. “I’ve been working for 30 years as a cleaner.  I’ve still got bills to pay.”

Company unapologetic

A spokeswoman for Spotless said it is lawful and common practice for the company to terminate employment at the end of a contract.

“Our business model involves employing staff to service particular commercial contracts and it is the common practice of Spotless to terminate the employment of employees when a contract ends (other than where those employees can be redeployed).”

As for the job offers in New Zealand, the spokeswoman said the company tries to redeploy staff where possible.

“We do not make assumptions about what types of roles or locations an employee may be interested in.”

Union says Spotless is ‘immoral’

Health Services Union NSW Secretary Gerard Hayes rejects that claim, telling Fairfax that sacking the workers with no redundancy pay is immoral.

“To claim that giving a Wollongong-based cleaner in Wollongong the option of applying for a job in New Zealand is somehow a genuine redeployment opportunity is clearly ridiculous.

“The fact that Spotless seem to be getting away with it also shows that there is something wrong with our workplace laws.”

Casualisation of the workforce

Miles Heffernan from IR Claims said contracting companies like Spotless always target the lowest paid workers in the hardest working jobs.

“Labour hire companies and contracting companies rely on the phrase ‘ordinary and customary turnover of labour’,” he said.  

“If you see that in an employment contract, it means you can be punted when the contract ends, without any redundancy.

“It is a workplace technicality for big companies to avoid paying redundancy, but unfortunately it’s the law.  

“This is the result of the casualisation of the workforce.”


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