Cleaners hoping for relief

The Service and Food Workers Union is hoping the highest court in the land will bring some relief to a group of lower North Island cleaners.

An argument erupted between the cleaners and global cleaning company OCS, which cut the working hours of 50 staff when they picked up the contract for Massey University in Palmerston North.

The discrepancy focuses on negotiations of redundancy entitlements, and will be tested at the Supreme Court in Wellington today.

The union's National Secretary, John Ryall, is hopeful the outcome will provide comfort for more than just the cleaners at the centre of the dispute.

"And we hope (to) give some confidence to very low income workers that they have got rights when these sorts of restructurings take place."

He says the decision handed down will impact on the rights of New Zealand's low income workers employed by contractors for years to come.

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