WORKPLACE HEALTH AND WELLBEING

Access to quality work opportunities varies hugely across different groups, with major inequities reported for Māori, Pacific peoples, recent migrants and disabled people.

• These groups disproportionally experience low quality work, which is low paid, undervalued, insecure and unsafe.
• 52% of Māori have experienced racial harassment at work, rising to 61% for recent migrant workers, and 62% for Pacific peoples and Asian people.
• Even after accounting for differences in job-related characteristics, educational attainment and other factors, only 27% of the pay gap for Pacific males (relative to Europeans) can be explained, and 39% of the pay gap for Pacific females.
• Māori and Pacific workers report higher levels of insecurity over their working conditions and threats to professional identity.
• Māori workers are more likely to report exposure to bullying (28%), cyberbullying (21%), sexual harassment (15%), threats of violence (20%) and physical violence (17%).

The cleaning industry is one of the largest employing industries in Tāmaki Makaurau, employing almost 12,000 people. However, there are significant health and wellbeing challenges for those working within the industry.

Working with cleaners, businesses, training organisations and unions amongst others, ARPHS (now NPHS - Northern Region) developed an Insights into Health and Wellbeing report in 2021 to understand workplace experiences for cleaners in Tāmaki Makaurau during the pandemic. The report brought together many perspectives within the commercial cleaning industry and identified what needs to change.

Since the publication of the Insights into Health and Wellbeing report:

• A Cleaning Service Sector Collective was formed with the collective goal of improving cleaners’ health and wellbeing.
• ServiceIQ (the industry training organisation for the aviation, hospitality, retail, travel, tourism, museum and wholesale sectors) used evidence from public health to inform their Cleaning Services Sector Skills Summary Report.