Hotels exploit workers: union




SOME of Melbourne's most prestigious hotels have been accused of exploiting some of the state's lowest-paid workers.

Room attendants at five-star hotels are receiving less take-home pay for a week's work than some guests pay to stay one night at the hotels.

Many attendants - most of whom are female and from an overseas background - feel pressured to work unpaid overtime and up to half have sustained work-place injuries, according to research by the Victorian Immigrant and Refugee Women's Coalition and the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union.


The research involved a telephone survey of 330 room attendants at 23 Melbourne hotels this year and will be presented in a report to be released this week.

While the report is not expected to name individual hotels, The Age has obtained leaked survey responses from 68 room attendants at Melbourne's three Hilton hotels and 18 from room attendants at Southbank's Langham hotel.

The Langham has been criticised by room attendants over pay rates and the time given to clean rooms.

Half of the room attendants surveyed also reported some form of injury at work - mostly back or hip related - and 39 per cent said they were not paid for some or all of their overtime.

Average take-home pay among room attendants at the Langham who responded to the survey was $464.70 a week.

Presented with the findings, Langham's managing director Ben Sington said ''it is not information I am familiar with'' and added he could not ''comment on a report I have not seen''.

The average take-home wage for the Hilton room attendants surveyed at the three hotels was $435.70 a week.

... wrote on Oct 5^th, 2010 at 10:25am:


Yeh kicking a bit of leather around a paddock is sure to get you a great career

So what.
I worked as an Assistant Nurse, cleaning more than they do, for low wages as well.
Some jobs are there as 'associated jobs', much like BarWork, DishWasher ....jobs that are there to provide a foundation for Studies or other jobs and endeavours. They are not considered 'fair dinkum' jobs in the scheme of things and why should they be exploited by people who can't be bothered to use them as so.
A lot of BackPackers enjoy such 'pocket-money' jobs as well for their travels.
...just because some FOB immigrant wants to expoit the situation as if it was a 'career' in the making via the Union.