The leader of Canberra's Catholics has called on the federal government to protect the wage rates of cleaners, describing them as the "new Aussie battlers".
Canberra and Goulburn Archbishop Christopher Prowse said he felt the need to speak out after the loss of conditions which could result in wage cuts of 20 per cent after last week's shredding of guidelines covering many cleaners at Commonwealth buildings.
"There’s a moral dimension here, and I think as a religious leader I need to raise my voice and blow the whistle and say, ‘Hang on. In the rush to make Australia better I think we’re, in this particular case, forgetting about a very important group of our workers'," Archbishop Prowse said.
"They're the new Aussie battlers, because most of them are coming from overseas. They generally are some of the lowest-paid workers in Australia, the ones that do the hidden work for us, they come to work when we’ve gone home."Advertisement
The removal of the cleaning services guidelines for Commonwealth government tenders, first put in place by Labor in 2011, is set to cost full-time workers at least $370 a fortnight if pay levels drop to modern award rates in future contracts.
Appointed in September, the head of the region's Catholics met with United Voice union members on Friday and said they were "desperately let down" by the erosion of their conditions, and there was a need to be careful that the "noble aim" of balancing the budget was not reached by using people as fodder
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