A cleaner at an Illawarra aged care facility, one of 19 to lose their job, says she feels like she has been stabbed in the back by an employer that had made her feel like family. Irene, who chose not to provide her surname, has worked at Marco Polo Unanderra Care Services for the past six years. Now, she has no job. Cleaners and laundry workers at the aged care facility have been “left high and dry” after none of them picked up jobs with the outsourcing company contracted to take over their work, according to the Health Services Union (HSU). “I’m disappointed because when I first started at Marco Polo I was told, and [it was] drilled in when we used to get our payslips, that we are a part of a family,” Irene said. “I did my best for them and then getting a letter saying that we are terminated or I’m not wanted here, it’s a bit disappointing to me, it’s like a stab in my back.” Irene spent most of her life at Dubbo, in the state’s central-west, before she packed up and shifted to the Illawarra with her husband. She later applied for the aged care cleaning job. “I was happy to be a part of Marco Polo and [for] their family to be my family and the residents to be part of my family,” she said. “Because of them, I had a job. It’s the residents who, at the end of the day, pay my bills, not the management.” HSU NSW secretary Gerard Hayes said Marco Polo had shown “complete disregard” for its workers and the Fair Work Commission, given the move to cut staff was made while a dispute over the matter was still being heard. Mr Hayes said some of the affected workers had been employed for 10 or 15 years and worked closely with the residents. “They may be cleaning … but the thing is they’re looking after people in their home environment,” he said. “These are not hotels we’re talking about, these are aged care facilities and so a cleaner in an aged care facility will also have a human interaction with people.” Marco Polo is set to open a new 168-room facility in Woonona later this year. Mr Hayes said the cleaners should have been offered work there, but have instead “been left high and dry”. The HSU is considering its remaining legal options to help the sacked workers.
