On International Women’s Day, we often celebrate leadership in visible roles. Yet across Australia’s cleaning industry, important leadership also happens behind the scenes – in procurement meetings, worker engagement sessions and site check-ins.
In the historically male-dominated property sector, more women are stepping into leadership roles, helping shape the policies, compliance systems and frameworks that protect workers’ rights.
Leadership is also emerging on the ground. CAF Representatives and Worker Engagement Officers – many of them women – are helping ensure workers’ voices are heard and concerns can be raised safely.
From People and Culture leadership to procurement oversight and frontline representation, women across the supply chain are showing that decent work is not just aspirational – it is operational. It is built through structured oversight, ongoing engagement and everyday decisions that protect and strengthen cleaners’ rights.
Embedding Decent Work into Organisational Culture
For Ann Shanahan, Acting Head of People and Culture at GLAD Group – a CAF Prequalified Contractor – labour assurance operates at two levels: robust systems and the leadership behaviours that bring them to life.
“As part of being CAF Prequalified, we’re responsible for ensuring all our HR and payroll systems are regularly audited – both internally and externally,” she explains.
“But beyond that, it’s about making sure our cleaners understand what our policies actually mean and how they are there to support them.”
In a workforce where many cleaners speak English as a second language, policies cannot simply exist – they must be understood.
“If someone needs help understanding something, I want to make sure that support is there.”
For Ann, embedding decent work has also meant shifting the tone of leadership discussions.
“I don’t think it’s too controversial to say that women tend to have more of those soft, conversational skills. When you have a woman in the room – whether that’s in leadership, site management or on the floor – I see conversations shift more toward worker wellbeing.”
Her own professional journey reflects this perspective. Originally from Sweden, Ann began her working life as a cleaner. Today, she leads People and Culture within a major property services provider – a progression that challenges outdated assumptions about the industry.
“Sadly, there is still this perception that a cleaner is ‘just a cleaner,’” she says.
“That’s incorrect. It’s a skilled role with multiple responsibilities, and it can absolutely offer a career pathway.”
Procurement as a Lever for Labour Standards
Reframing cleaning as skilled, valuable work with opportunities for progression – and ensuring strong frameworks exist to protect those performing it – is itself a form of labour assurance.
However, contractor-level culture and compliance are only part of the equation. Asset owners and building managers define the operational parameters that directly influence working conditions.
At 1 William St, a CAF-Certified office building in Brisbane, Building Manager Lydia King says her team is “immensely proud of the building being CAF Certified” – and committed to maintaining that standard.
“CAF Certification positions us as a leader in our industry – and that message comes right from the top,” she adds. “Ours is a highly visible site, so we see CAF as an opportunity to help drive positive change in the cleaning industry and set an example.”
Beyond compliance, Lydia is focused on ensuring cleaners are recognised within building operations – particularly in a workforce made up predominantly of women, whose working conditions have historically been overlooked.
“The cleaning industry has always been quite an invisible one. Gender may play a role in that, but it’s also about the nature of the work,” she reflects.
“When everything is done professionally, you don’t always see it – but with women predominantly making up that workforce, you don’t want their needs to be invisible as well. CAF helps give cleaners a platform.”
Worker Engagement is that platform, strengthening worker visibility beyond what can be captured through desk-based compliance audits alone.
“Worker engagement channels provide a level of assurance for us,” says Lydia. “We gain confidence through our quarterly CAF check-ins and annual compliance checks that we’re on the right track looking after our workforce.”
When procurement is informed by worker voice, it becomes more than contract management. It becomes a mechanism for transparency, early risk identification and accountability – ensuring that workers’ day-to-day realities remain central to how cleaning services are overseen and delivered.
Voices on the Ground: The Role of CAF Representatives
If procurement sets the standards, worker engagement brings them to life.
Through CAF Representatives, cleaners are supported to speak up, raise concerns and contribute to safer, fairer workplaces.
At site level, labour assurance becomes personal. Rosalie Kochanek has worked as a cleaner in Queensland for more than 20 years and was also a CAF Representative.
“I choose to be a CAF representative because I wanted my colleagues to feel confident speaking up. Sometimes people aren’t sure who to go to, what to say, or whether they’ll be taken seriously.” she said.
Worker Engagement in CAF-Certified buildings is an ongoing process focused on education, trust-building and safe, structured feedback channels.
“Some cleaners don’t even know what their rights are. I want more people to know they don’t have to accept something if it’s not right.”
For many cleaners – particularly women balancing family responsibilities or navigating language barriers – representation matters.
“Sometimes it just helps to talk to someone like you. It makes it easier to ask questions or raise concerns,” says Rosalie.
Ann Shanahan from the GLAD Group agrees, noting that female representation is especially important on the floor.
“It can be daunting to speak up in an organisation full of men. It’s important that women have someone they can turn to.”
Allyship is particularly important given the heightened risk of gender-based violence, including sexual harassment, faced by cleaners as frontline workers. In these situations, trusted and culturally safe reporting channels are essential.
Through structured worker engagement, cleaners’ concerns can be escalated via formal investigation and remediation pathways, ensuring issues are addressed systematically – not informally or in isolation.
A Feedback Loop That Strengthens Workers’ Rights
What connects these three roles – People and Culture leadership, procurement oversight and CAF Representation – is a shared commitment to closing the feedback loop.
This feedback loop is central to CAF. Worker consultation informs investigations. Investigations inform remediation. Remediation is monitored through ongoing oversight.
When implemented effectively, this strengthens:
- Wage compliance
- Workload management
- ESG reporting credibility
- Worker confidence
- Tenant and community safety
Importantly, it shifts the industry from reactive compliance to proactive assurance.
International Women’s Day provides an opportunity to recognise how women are shaping this transformation. Their work is operational. Measurable. Central to building a cleaning industry where workers are protected, respected and empowered.
On International Women’s Day, CAF is proud to acknowledge the women across the cleaning supply chain whose leadership strengthens labour rights every day. Their work reminds us that decent work is not achieved through a single initiative – it is built collectively, through transparency, accountability and ensuring more women have the opportunity to be heard.