Be careful working as a cleaner

New studies has found that International students working as cleaners in major shopping centres are being exploited.
They are working for $17 an hour and some get a whole lot more shifts than others. Hence in a twenty hour working week they earn just over $320 per week. That's not enough to cover all of their bills.

Being a cleaner is heavy work and as students you cannot work any more than 20 hours per week. They walk everywhere with the heavy equipment and they clean as well. They have to walk about 14.6kms or more each shift with the heavy equipment.
Just this year many shopping centres had cut back on their staff resulting in more workloads for those that are still around. In the end it resulted in shoddiness and leaving mess everywhere in the centres.

Because the industry is in crisis most of the jobs are advertised on gumtree

According to a report by United voice many of the students are from India and they may not know of their rights when working. Many of them were afraid to speak up in case their visa gets cancelled.

Most of them felt stressed and that their health and safety was at risk. If equipment was broken they just have to use it. Some of them also felt that the work was back breaking.

Some of them were also bullied into doing many shifts as well as being teased by their local peers. There is also a lot of racism particularly with Indian students.

Lessons learnt:
* Don't be afraid to speak up
* Know your rights as a worker
* Know what the minimum pay rate is. You can find this out and many other things at :http://www.fairwork.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

What should be done by the employer so that this doesn't happen?
*Pay the right rates
* Treat International students like anyone else- DO NOT DISCRIMINATE