Spotless lockout sets a shameful milestone
Tomorrow (Friday) marks the sixth day of the lockout of 800 hospital cleaners, orderlies and kitchen workers by their
employer Spotless Services Ltd. The Service and Food Workers Union says the hospital lockout now exceeds the total
number of days lost in the health sector over the past ten years.
"More lost hours have been generated by Spotless in this one lockout, than the total lost hours of every other
industrial dispute in our pubic hospitals over the past ten years," says SFWU spokesperson Alastair Duncan.
"Spotless has set a shameful milestone."
The union estimates that the eight hundred workers, most of whom earn less than $13 an hour, have lost over four hundred
thousand dollars in wages to date.
Most Spotless hospital worker earn less than $NZ27, 000 a year. This contrast with the $A100, 000 directorships paid to
Board members and the CEO's $A1.7 million package," says Alastair Duncan.
ENDS
Service and Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota
www.sfwu.org