Cleaners
at Parliament have taken industrial action for the first time ever
over their employer’s refusal to pay a decent Living Wage.
Services Limited (SSL) are only paid $12.55 an hour – five cents
above the minimum wage.
The same cleaning contractor already
pays all its cleaners in public hospitals and many working in schools
$14.62 a hour.
cleaners say they are fed up of waiting to be paid fairly, and
protested outside Parliament on the 17thFebruary.
"All we are asking is to be treated with dignity and
respect, and to be paid fairly." says SFWU member Allan Gaylard.
"I clean Parliament from mid-night to dawn, and I
think a lot of these MPs do not know we exist. It is OK for John Key
and Members of Parliament to say they will not get a pay rise this
year, but they earn more than $130,000 with John Key earning
$400,000, whereas I earn $12.55 an hour!"
The
cleaners, who are members of the Service and Food Workers Union Nga
Ringa Tota, have been in negotiations for their Multi Employer
Collective Agreement with the cleaning contractors since May last
year.
So far the contractors have only offered a
25-cent pay rise, which would still leave the workers on just above
the minimum wage, even after 1st April.
"At the
weekend the Prime Minister told protesters in Auckland that he didn’t
think he could live on $420 a week." says Mea’ole Keil, Clean
Start organiser.
"Many
of our cleaners earn less than that, and they can’t survive on $12.55
an hour. They deserve a fair living wage."
"We
understand Bill English pays his cleaner $20 an hour, and we’re
pleased he respects his cleaner enough to pay them fairly. We’d love
other cleaners to get the same rate, but to begin with, how about
paying all cleaners in the Public Sector closer to $15!" says
Mea’ole.