After protesting at parliament last week, followed by Labour MPs writing to the speaker, cleaners at Parliament have sent their own letter to the Speaker, asking him to assist. This is a big deal for these cleaners to do this, just as it was for them to protest outside parliament last week – they’ve never done it before and as they say, they are largely invisible, working during the night when politicians are sleeping to keep their offices clean and maintained to a high standard.
Meanwhile, I want to introduce you to Jaine Ikurere, who cleans John Key’s office. She’s signed the letter, and like the other cleaners at Parliament, earns just $12.55 an hour.
I hope Mr Speaker listens to Jaine and her fellow cleaners.
I hope Jaine gets her raise.
No cleaner (or any other person in our economy) can expect to be paid more than there economic worth. The cleaning business is so comtetitive that margins have been cut to the absolute limits.
It is a tough world out there. Cleaning is essentially an unskilled job therefore logic follows that there is a surplus of labour over demand to the point where the wage is as you note $12.55 per hour. If she does not like that and can earn more elsewhere then she should go and find a job where a potential employer will pay her more.
Simple.
And no sympathy from me at all.
And even less regard you for exploiting Jaine in this way.
I’m keen to hear how this plays out. I’m sure you’ll keep us informed.
Politicians sleep at night? I do hope you and your colleagues get enough sleep. I do often wonder whether our MPs actually get enough sleep, family time etc.
Darien have you ever had a conversation with Jaine, or are you just using her for political gain?
Excellent work Darien (again)! and congrats Janie for standing up for yourself, and your wage.
Charles, what a stupid comment. In my view, Darien is showing her as an example of a person who gets paid a pathetic wage, cleaning ministerial offices. I believe that it is actually important that people like Janie stand up, and not just the MP’s otherwise that may give the view of a political gain purpose, not for the good of others. I am disgusted you said that.
Spud… I agree.
Monty, I bet you don’t clean the toilet at home. You are probably the sort that leaves the seat up as well. Have you ever wondered what the state of health of parliament buildings would be like if the cleaners did not exist? Don’t crap on about jobs worth.
Monty! where did you ‘learn’ all that? ya plonker!
@Monty on the basis that she is a human being she deserves a rate better than that. And maybe if the cleaners stopped doing their work for two weeks people like you would realise the true worth of it!
If she can’t expect to be paid more then why are people doing the same job in other government departments signed by the same contractor being paid more? That’s why the whole situation is so unfair.
I agree with Monty and Charles.
$12.55 is what everyone who is unskilled gets paid.
If Labour wanted to help people on such a wage then they could have done plenty of things when they were in power.
They didn’t.
I may be slightly on the cynical side. I call it like I see it.
“If she can’t expect to be paid more then why are people doing the same job in other government departments signed by the same contractor being paid more?”
@ Nicola Wood – The question is, why hasn’t she quit, or applied to work where the others are?
@ everyone else – Being paid that amount must suck, but attacking Monty for telling the truth betrays your acknowledgement of knowing what he says is correct.
Just out of interest –
What was the advertised wage for the job she applied for?
What was the wage she accepted when offered?
What was the wage she signed for in her employment contract?
Yep – must have come as a shock.
No sympathy – and sadly – it smacks of labour pandering, again.
I have no sympathy at all. People control their own destiny in life. If cleaners are getting paid more in other locations then she needs to ring those companies and ask for a job at the higher rate.
If she cleans John Key’s office then I suspect she has the highest security clearance. Not necessarily that easy for a cleaner to get. She (with her union needs to exploit that) and on that basis it could be argued that she should be worth more. (Because that is an attribute that an employer could be prepared to pay more for).
That should be the arguement. Still very distasteful for an MP to exploit her in this way for political gain (Does doing this even pose a security risk??
The mere fact that she is deemed trustworthy enough to clean the PM’s office, presumably when no one is around makes her worth a lot more than $12.55 per hour.
Monty wrote “The cleaning business is so comtetitive that margins have been cut to the absolute limits(sic)”
I guess you missed the posted profit of Spotless recently?
“Their net profit after tax has increased by 40.8% to over $24 million. Their earnings per share is up 25%.”
I am not bashing them for making a profit merely using it to show that your “absolute limits” on cleaning margins is erroneous.
If cleaners only get $12.55 for cleaning Bill English’s office, did he pocket the $7.55 out of the $20 he got from Parlimentary Services for cleaning his house?
Maybe Jaine should go to work in a burqa and then ask for a pay rise!
Just joking…
While I am slightly upset the Speaker doesn’t offer higher wages to the people who tend to some our Nation’s greatest offices, The Speaker and his team are well within their rights to charge whatever they feel the person’s worth, in this case 12.55, the person is worth 5c more than the minimum wage, I expect that certain previous 2 speakers did little in this department as well. I don’t want to attack this person who is obviously the victim of being found by a labour flunkie but if a person cannot get themselves a higher wage then it shows something as to their skills…perhaps rather than givign her more money some polytech classes might be in order…
“the rate for the job” is a difficult beast to identify – other public sector cleaners in Wellington earn $14.50 an hour, that’s one major discrepancy. Bankers who get huge bonuses even when their bank loses money are another.
Once again it seems that in order to get the rich to work hard you have to pay them more but to get the poor to work hard you pay them less.
@Bikerkiwi : For goodness sake – I’ve been supporting and advocating for workers like Jaine for years and I’m not about to stop now just because I am an MP.
@Charles : of course I’ve talked to Jaine and all of the cleaners at Parliament. I’ve known many of them for a very long time.
Here’s an idea. If you are that concerned about the pay these cleaners are getting (and I agree it is apalling) why don’t you and youir colleagues leave $5 on your desks every night as a tip?
There are 43 Labour MPs so that’d work out to 215 dollars a night,and over a week an extra $1075 dollars for the cleaning staff to split between them.
Given the base salary rate for backbench MPs is $131,000 pa I think you probably could afford it.
BTW where was your support for the Bellamy’s staff when they were contracted to the previous provider? When staff got paid no overtime or penalty rates? When, after an 8 hour day shift, they could be required to go up and do a 4 hour shift at members and guests and only be be paid a normal hourly rates?
Good on you for supporting the cleaners. It’s nice to see them get some support. But I just wish you had been more proactive for the rights of workers in Parliament when you had the ministerial benches. Cos at the moment it just looks like you’re trying to score political points.
There is a disparity in terms of what cleaners earn across the country – I would have thought parliament would have been the last place to see exploitation and therefore setting an example of how to treat others – silly me.
As for tight margins in the cleaning industry – really? What rock have you been hiding under Monty – the cleaning industry does quite alright, esp if you have companies willing to tackle the really awful stuff (crime scenes etc).
From memory, didn’t Labour increase wages – esp lower ones? You may have to correct me on that. It is too easy to say ‘Labour should have done this, or that’ – we have short memories people. Labour spent the first 3 years fixing a lot of issues that the Nats had placed – it would seem that not only do we have short memories (eg Hollow Men saga) but we sure do not know how to learn a lesson.
We in Labour must talk about the billions we spent on social restructuring (Suppreme Court/Maori/Committees/International conferences/WomedDisability, making movies in Wgtn, Radio NZ $50 Mill, and many others) – NOT to say they are “bad”, but they leave the low skilled, non public sector, employed (once our electoral base) living like the Parlimentary cleaners. After all, her wage is what we paid her for nine years.
@randominity : When I first became an MP I talked with Bellamys staff about joining a union because I knew that the SFWU has had several attempts to unionise them and failed because of fear of their employer. That’s what needs to happen if things are going to improve for them. Of course I will support them too, but if they don’t speak out, like the cleaners are doing, it’s difficult to know what’s happening for them. If any of them had raised these issues with me, I would have done everything possible to speak out for them. However, you should know that when the contract changed, what guaranteed the staff kept their jobs on current pay and conditions was Labour’s ERA amendment for vulnerable workers. Otherwise, they could have been fired or re-employed on even lower wages – that was probably the major thing Labour did for contracted workers, along with increasing the minimum wages. You clearly know something about the Bellamys staff. Talk with them about joining a union and I will back them all the way.
Wayne what nonsense. Parl cleaners like all others had regular rises under Labour. Remember min wage went from $7 to $12. And if her agreement had come up before the election she would have been on $14.62 like she would get in a school or hospital.
@ All the plonkers who beleive that cleaners should be paid minimum wage.
Go home and clean your own toilets.
Then go to your work and clean the toilets.
Then come back on here and let us know how much it is worth to be up to your elbows in someone elses pooh.
No one forces you to be a cleaner.
Labour need to worry about all the working class and not just a couple of cleaners at the Beehive.
Hobby horse poltics at its best.
Uninspired, as usual.
Its not easy to change jobs when unemployment is so high at the moment.
@Patrick Anderson : “Labour need to worry about all the working class and not just a couple of cleaners at the Beehive” How do you know we don’t?
Darien
@Patrick Anderson : “Labour need to worry about all the working class and not just a couple of cleaners at the Beehive” How do you know we don’t?”
http://www.electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2008/
Or would you like me to go into specifics how working classes did not vote labour in the last election? I would have thought you would have had a review on the 2008 election by now?
@sweetd : yes, I would like you to go into specifics, starting with how you define the working classes? Because I bet I know a damn sight more about them than you.
Darien, I sure do miss that lovely labour arrogance, that “we know best attitude”. But of course you are right, I am just a humble voter.
I think this is a pretty good definition, but I would love to hear yours?
“Working class is a term used in academic sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs, as measured by skill, education and lower incomes. Working classes are mainly found in industrialized economies and in urban areas of non-industrialized economies.
As with many terms describing social class, working class is defined and used in many different ways. When used non-academically, it typically refers to a section of society dependent on physical labor, especially when compensated with an hourly wage. Its use in academic discourse is contentious, especially following the decline of manual labor in postindustrial societies. Some academics question the usefulness of the concept of a working class. The term is usually contrasted with the upper class and middle class, in terms of access to economic resources, education and cultural interests. Its usage can be derogatory, but many people self-identify as working class and experience a sense of pride similar to a national identity.
@sweetd : didn’t mean to sound arrogant, but thanks for the Wiki definition. But specifics please on your offer to spell out “how working classes did not vote labour in the last election” ? Bottom line, Jaine won’t give a toss about this debate and I don’t blame her. What’s far more important is what happens to her and others like her than scoring points on who voted for who and why.
I don’t see this as hobby horse politics – in fact, it heartens me to see Lab standing up for all manner of groups and needs within our country – its what I expect from them and its what they need to do. For all groups – making a stand here and in other parts of our society, means we can expect Lab not to let us down when we need them. (unlike the selfish acts of the right)
Appreciate the work you have done Darien to support the interests of not just the parliamentary cleaners, but cleaners and other vulnerable workers throughout New Zealand.
Once upon a time many of these workers, including the parliamentary cleaners and catering staff, were part of the public service and were accorded wage rates relative to other state servants.
During the 1990s all of this changed and they were contracted out to private cleaning and catering companies.
The attraction for contracting for Parliamentary Services is that they are no longer seen as responsible for the wage rates that are paid to the cleaners. They simply have to put out a tender and get the cleaning companies to compete with each other over the price, and then pick the lowest one.
We should not let them get away with this. They need to be held to account.
Just out of interest, how much did the cleaners make who cleaned Helen Clark’s office.
Also did any Labour party people do a blog about it?
Brett – the last Speaker wasn’t proposing such a trivial increase in the wages of the cleaning staff who looked after Helen Clark’s office. And we didn’t have a blog then.