“At my hospital, we were all very excited to see that there’s ‘contracting in’ happening at the North Island Hospital for housekeepers.
We want to see that happen for us, and it can’t happen soon enough.
I’m a Housekeeper at an acute care hospital, and I’ve been doing this job for almost nine years. But I work for a private company, and housekeepers have been contracted out since 2004.
In 2004, before we were contracted out, our in-house housekeepers made about $19 an hour, but now I only make $17.10 an hour with the private company. That’s the impact of contracting out.
I only have eight sick days a year. There’s lots of staff turnover. I’m angry about our wages, but I’m really hopeful that we are going to go back in-house.
We clean the rooms when patients leave, and make sure they’re 100 per cent perfect. It’s a big job.
We don’t like to have patients waiting for a room, so we work quickly but still make sure it’s perfect and safe.”
- Raj (Sukhpal), Housekeeper, part of the health care team