The invisible team:
the people who make your workplace feel welcoming

The cleaner who fell asleep on the job

Not long ago, I asked a senior business leader for advice on building a cleaning business. Instead, she told me a story.

Years ago, she arrived at the office early and found one of the cleaners asleep in a meeting room. Most people would have reported him. She asked him why he was so tired.

He’d been up all night working another job. His cleaning job didn’t pay enough to live on, and his super wasn’t being paid at all. So he worked two jobs, slept when he could, and still turned up to make her office look perfect.

He wasn’t a bad worker. He was the saving in someone else’s cheap quote.

That story has stayed with me, because it isn’t rare. It’s what happens when cleaning is bought on price alone.

A night with the invisible team

At 6pm, as most of Sydney heads home, a different workforce arrives. They empty the bins, sanitise the desks, scrub the bathrooms, restock the kitchen and reset the meeting rooms for tomorrow. By 8am, it’s as if nobody was there.

That’s the point of good cleaning. It’s also the problem. When the work is invisible, the people doing it become invisible too.

Behind many clean offices, cleaners are:

• Working split shifts — a couple of hours here, a couple there, often with unpaid travel between sites.
• Holding down two or three jobs — because one short shift rarely covers rent in Sydney.
• Living with little security — contracts change hands on price, and the team changes with them.
• Going unrecognised — most people in the office never learn their cleaner’s name.

None of this shows up on a quote. But it shows up in the work.

Why cheap doesn’t always mean right

Most of a cleaning quote is labour. So when one price comes in well below the others, it’s worth asking where the saving comes from. Usually, it’s the people:

• Fewer hours on site — the quote assumes the job takes less time than it does, so corners get cut.
• Unpaid super or entitlements — money that belongs to the cleaner quietly becomes margin.
• Sham contracting — workers labelled contractors to avoid award rates and super.

The cost doesn’t disappear. It moves — to a tired worker on their second job, to missed tasks and constant turnover, and eventually to you, the business whose name is on the contract.

A fair price isn’t a premium. It’s the true cost of doing the job properly.

Why RFPs now ask about your cleaners

The Australian Government has identified cleaning as a key risk area for modern slavery. Under the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth), large organisations must report each year on how they find and address these risks in their supply chains — and the cleaners in their buildings are part of that chain.

Mandatory climate-related financial reporting is also being phased in, starting with Australia’s largest companies in 2025. Alongside broader sustainability considerations, boards, investors and procurement teams are looking harder at suppliers.

So when organisations go to tender, they ask cleaning providers questions like:

• Are workers paid at or above the award, with super paid on time?
• Can you provide pay records, policies and police checks?
• How can workers raise a concern safely?

These answers matter because:

• It’s their risk. A modern slavery statement covers suppliers. An underpaid cleaner is a gap in it.
• Wage theft is a crime. Since 1 January 2025, intentional underpayment has been a criminal offence in Australia.
• Reputations are shared. An exploited cleaner in your building is a story about your brand, not just the contractor’s.
• They need proof. Procurement teams need evidence they can file and show a board, not promises.

If your cleaning provider can’t answer these questions clearly, your organisation can’t either.

What fair pay changes

Paying people properly isn’t only the right thing to do. It makes the service better.

• People stay. Lower turnover means the same faces on your site, who know where everything goes and what you care about.
• People have time. A realistic roster means the job is done properly, not rushed before the next site.
• People care. When someone feels valued, it shows in the details — the meeting room reset just right, the spill handled before anyone noticed.
• People speak up. A team that feels respected tells you about the leaking tap or the broken lock before it becomes your problem.

Fair pay is how you get a team, not just a service.

How we pay our cleaners right

At Equilux, fair work isn’t a policy we file away. It’s how the business is built.

When an RFP asks for evidence, we provide it: pay rates checked against the award, super records, police checks and work-rights verification.

Say hello to your cleaner

Fair pay is the foundation. Kindness and respect are the easy bit on top — and they cost nothing.

So here’s a friendly nudge to every office in Sydney: say hello to your cleaner. If you’re working late when they arrive, look up from the laptop. Learn their name. Say thanks for the sparkling kitchen. Save them a slice of the birthday cake.

It sounds small, because it is. But for someone who spends their evenings making your workplace feel welcoming, being seen goes a long way. The leader in my story saw a person, not a problem — and it started with one simple question.

The question worth asking

Next time you compare cleaning quotes, look past the monthly figure. Ask who is doing the work, what they’re paid, and whether their super is paid.

The best offices don’t just look clean. They’re cleaned by people who are treated well. That’s the standard we hold ourselves to at Equilux.