International students make up about half of the cleaning workforce, and a new report says they are being subjected to bullying, racism and sexual harassment.
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Australia's Race Discrimination Commissioner, Dr Helen Szoke has called on shopping centres to stamp out exploitation, with international students now making up half their cleaning workforce.
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“Shopping centres are big sub-contractors,” she says. “They are in a very powerful position to determine the values base as well as the monetary base of the services which they are sub-contracting.
“What we don't want is students going home telling stories about being treated badly or being treated in way which constitutes racism.”
According to the reportby Victorian TAFE International (VTI) and United Voice, the Cleaners Union, international students face widespread exploitation forced to work more for no extra pay. If they complain, they risk being sacked or reported to authorities for breaching visa conditions that allow only twenty hours work a week.
“To work as a cleaner in a shopping centre is a really hard job. It is not easy,” says 29-year-old Columbian student Paola Torres.
Torres has spent five years trying to finance a hospitality course with cleaning work and is shocked at how she and her fellow workers are being treated.
“Sometimes their situation is very bad. They have been suffering from bullying, racism and sometimes sexual harassment," she says.
The study found that with their visa restrictions, international students earn a little over $320 a week from their cleaning. The work is also physically taxing, with research showing the average shopping centre cleaner covers 14.6 kilometres every eight hour shift.
But the Shopping Centre Council of Australia says cleaning subcontractors are responsible for pay and conditions and has branded the report a "union stunt”.
"I'm surprised that the race discrimination commissioner would allow herself to become involved in a trade union stunt as part of its campaign for over-award payments in the industry," said Milton Cockburn, chief executive of the Shopping Centre Council of Australia.
Jess Walsh from United Voice, the organisation responsible for the report, denies these claims.
“The report is disturbing. It shows that international student cleaners are trying to survive on poverty wages."
