I’m Cathy, a shopping centre cleaner at Westfield Marion.

I’ve worked at this centre for 10 years—maybe you’ve seen me in the centre, or maybe I’ve even helped you with finding your favourite shop or locating the nearest toilet.

After working at the centre for 10 years, I currently make $16.57 an hour. Every month, I struggle to pay my bills and get by—I’m forced to rob Peter to pay Paul. And, in spite of this low increase, my workloads have increased—they keep cutting staff and cutting cleaning contracts.

Westfield makes billions of dollars every year, but they’re still acting like a Grinch—pinching pennies wherever they can.

What they don’t realise is that this has a real, human impact. I know many cleaners like myself who are terrified of what the future will be like for themselves and their children.

I’m getting close to retirement age, but I know that I’ll be working well after my 65th birthday. I don’t understand how a shopping centre owner that makes so much money feels that its right to cut costs that cut so much deeper.

It’s time that companies that make so much from those of us working so hard did their part for all of society and for our community. It’s time that Westfield stopped being a Grinch and stood up for cleaners—helping hardworking families, like mine, that have to dread Christmas and can’t afford to put any presents under the tree, let alone food in the cupboard.