HR, safety and compliance for cleaning businesses

The Cleaning Services Award 2020 covers employees engaged in commercial, industrial or residential cleaning in Australia. It sets minimum pay rates by classification, casual loadings, penalty rates for early morning shifts (before 6am), evening shifts (after 6pm) and weekend work, and allowances for toilet cleaning, cold work, heights, refuse collection and laundry.

The most common underpayment areas: applying a flat rate rather than time-of-day penalties, missing the casual loading on variable-hours workers, and not paying the relevant allowances where they apply. The Fair Work Ombudsman actively audits the cleaning sector, so getting this right before an audit is the priority.

Our HR advisors can review your current pay arrangements against the Award, identify any exposure and help you put compliant systems in place.

Yes, and that’s exactly what it’s built for. Cleaning management software needs to do more than fill shifts. It needs to automatically interpret the Cleaning Services Award, match staff to sites based on availability and site-specific requirements, and process payroll directly from approved timesheets without manual re-entry.

foundU handles the Cleaning Services Award in full, including penalty rates, loadings, and allowances. Managers get real-time visibility of staff availability across all sites, can manage shift swaps and last-minute changes, and push payroll directly from approved timesheets. Because rostering and payroll are in the same platform, there’s no manual handoff between systems and no risk of the errors that come with it.

As the PCBU (Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking), you’re required to maintain: 

• Written WHS policies and procedures relevant to cleaning environments 
• Site-specific hazard identification registers and risk assessment records 
• A register of hazardous substances and current Safety Data Sheets (SDS) for all chemicals in use 
• Manual handling risk assessments for repetitive cleaning tasks 
• Incident management records and notifiable incident reporting systems 
• Worker induction records for each site 
• Records of regular WHS reviews and corrective actions 

One important clarification: your WHS obligations follow your workers to every client site. You can’t rely on the client’s WHS system to cover your staff. You need your own documented risk assessments and induction records for each location. This is particularly important in high-risk environments like hospitals, aged care facilities and food production sites. 

Yes, increasingly so. ISO 9001 demonstrates to prospective clients that your quality management system meets a recognised international standard. For government contracts, facility management tenders and cleaning contracts in regulated environments like healthcare, aged care and education, it’s often a mandatory requirement or a scored evaluation criterion. Without it, you may be excluded before the tender is even assessed.

ISO 45001, which covers occupational health and safety management, strengthens your position in tenders where WHS governance is assessed. It also aligns with your work health and safety obligations under state and federal law. Both certifications show clients you operate to a documented, auditable standard, which matters when you’re working in sensitive environments.

Under the Fair Work Act’s employee choice pathway, a casual employee who’s worked a regular pattern of hours for at least six months (12 months if you’re a small business) can give you written notice requesting conversion to permanent employment. You then have 21 days to respond – accepting the change, or refusing it with a specific, permitted reason in writing.

In cleaning, where rosters often look similar week to week, many casuals meet the criteria for conversion even if their hours vary. Mishandling a valid request doesn’t just create Fair Work Commission dispute risk – it can also be raised as a General Protections claim if the worker believes you acted to avoid it, such as by cutting their hours.

Our HR advisors can review your current casual workforce, identify who meets the conversion threshold and help you manage the process in a way that protects the business while treating your people fairly.