A husband and wife who say they worked 60-hour weeks as cleaners at a council in 
Melbourne’s north have lodged a declare for almost $500,000 in unpaid wages from their former enterprise.
Key factors:
Bill and Jackie Lakovski say they are owed nearly $500,000 in backpay from Australian Environmental Cleaning Services
They have lodged a claim in the Federal Court
The company affords offerings for Hume City Council, which said it did not want to realize approximately its cleaners’ situations
Bill and Jackie Lakovski lodged the Federal Court declare for alleged unpaid wages and superannuation from Maksim Pty Ltd, which trades as Australian Environmental Cleaning Services (AECS).
They had been employed at the organization for 12 years, six of which had been spent cleansing for the Hume City Council.
“Mentally and bodily, I am destroyed,” Mrs. Lakovski stated.
She stated she and her husband worked 60 hours per week each — frequently overnight, with no penalty prices or beyond regular time and no superannuation.
They even needed to offer their own equipment, like mops and vacuum cleaners.
“We had to be available for them 24-7,” she said.
“Starting five:30 within the afternoon, completing 3 o’clock within the morning.
“We never noticed the day. We best knew the night time — and on the road from website to web site to web site. That’s what we do.”
Often, Mrs. Lakovksi said, the couple would work as a group to complete the responsibilities — successfully working for $10 an hour each.
Their adult children grew more and more concerned.
“Not being capable of just spending time with us, just laying in bed depressed.”
His sister, Marija, is livid at their treatment.
“There has now not been a thing that my parents have now not finished for that organization,” she said.
“They’ve labored weekends, public holidays … they essentially worked extra than they had been at domestic.”
Council apologizes for failing to reply plea for assist
The ABC has now not obtained a reaction from the cleaning contractor they worked for, AECS, nor its parent agency, Maksim Pty Ltd.
The business enterprise claims to rent greater than 450 cleaners, operating contracts throughout Melbourne in corporate and public organizations, massive and small.
Hume City Council is one in all them, that is why the Lakovskis approached it for help in May final yr.
When they were given no response, they emailed council chief executive officer Domenic Isola at once, pronouncing: “The hassle we’re having with Malkin … is for very much being underpaid in our hourly rate and now not being paid on time.
“I do not know if this concerns you however you are our closing alternative for assist,” the email said.
Again, they were given no reaction.
The ABC requested Mr. Isola why the council had not investigated the concerns raised through the Lakovskis approximately its cleaning contractor.
He said the council did make inquiries into the Lakovskis’ worries at the time, however, determined that there has been “a bigger problem that desires to be resolved among the 2 parties”.
Asked why the Lakovskis were by no means responded to, he said: “This might have been better communicated to Bill and Jackie Lakovski and we apologize for that.”
Hume Mayor Carly Moore declined to remark.
