Spotless workers strike as employer refuses to pay up

Spotless workers strike as employer refuses to pay up

April 7, 2008

Nine months after winning a pay rise of $3 an hour, more than 800 workers at Spotless Services have been forced to take strike action to get the company to honour its end of the bargain.

Spotless workers were subject to a brutal nine day lockout last July over their wage negotiations. That lockout ended when the Employment Court found it to be illegal, and Spotless agreed to pay a base wage rate of $14.25.

Now the company is refusing to pay up over a funding error, behaviour that led to the first in a series of rolling strikes on Wednesday and a call from Spotless workers for the DHBs to cancel Spotless’ contracts and get it out of the health system.

Service and Food Workers organiser Shane Vugler says by mistreating their staff and putting patient safety at risk Spotless has failed to meet its obligations to the DHBs and to the public.

“Spotless has proven unable to meet its obligations to the public and further, there is no cost advantage to DHB's to contract out these services because the contractors have now agreed to pay the same wage rates as directly employed staff. 

“In fact, the NZ taxpayer is being short-changed twice by this Australian corporate.  First, when they pay a large profit margin to Spotless, thereby making their service delivery more expensive than directly employed services, then the NZ taxpayer gets short-changed again when Spotless refuses to pay its staff wage rates they have been funded for by the taxpayer.”

“Spotless is the largest provider but with 40% of DHBs directly employing staff we say there is no place for private profiteers.”
 
On Thursday Service and Food workers members voted to step up their strike action, with more planned for later in the month.

Meanwhile, the Southland and Waitemata District Health Boards have decided to remove Spotless from some of their services after May 1st.