abstract: 'Neoliberal policies of industrial relations decentralisation and

  privatisation have transformed the economic landscape of Australia in

  the last 20 years. The primary objective of these policies has been to

  enhance wealth and prosperity by improving productivity and flexibility

  of the workforce and competition and accountability in the market. Yet

  the evidence suggests that precarious workers are not benefiting from

  this increased prosperity, indeed they suffer by comparison with all

  other workers. Cleaners are a subset of precarious workers who have been

  hard hit by the dual impacts of labour market decentralisation and

  privatisation. This study finds quantitative evidence of an increasing

  gap in earnings between cleaners and other workers in Australia since

  the onset of workplace relations decentralisation and the proliferation

  of privatisation in the mid 1990s. We locate our argument in recent

  debates about the nature of variegated neoliberalism, the emergence of

  the networked economy, and the implications of these developments for

  the nature of work and employment.'
affiliation: 'Holley, S (Corresponding Author), Univ Sydney, Sch Work \& Org Studies,
  Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.

  Holley, Sasha, Univ Sydney, Sch Work \& Org Studies, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.

  Rainnie, Al, Curtin Univ Technol, Grad Sch Business, Perth, WA 6845, Australia.'
author: Holley, Sasha and Rainnie, Al
author-email: 'sasha.holley@sydney.edu.au

  al.rainnie@gsb.curtin.edu.au'
author_list:
- family: Holley
  given: Sasha
- family: Rainnie
  given: Al
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1177/103530461202300109
eissn: 1838-2673
files: []
issn: 1035-3046
journal: ECONOMIC AND LABOUR RELATIONS REVIEW
keywords: 'Cleaners; income disparity; networked economy; outsourcing; precarious

  work; privatisation and decentralisation; vulnerable; low-paid workers'
keywords-plus: WORK; HEALTH; LABOR
language: English
month: FEB
number: '1'
number-of-cited-references: '63'
orcid-numbers: Rainnie, Alistair/0000-0001-6071-4193
pages: 143-160
papis_id: 13b43d4139a03656fd964fa8eb7ca622
ref: Holley2012whocleans
times-cited: '11'
title: Who Cleans Up? The Declining Earnings Position of Cleaners in Australia
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000307081300009
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '15'
volume: '23'
web-of-science-categories: Economics; Industrial Relations \& Labor
year: '2012'