Cleaning contracts in Australia: what to put in them, and how to know they are working

01

What a cleaning contract is, and the law around it

A cleaning contract is a contract for services. On one side is the client: a building owner, an owners corporation or body corporate, a strata or managing agent, a facility manager, or a tenant. On the other is the cleaning contractor, which employs the cleaners, or engages subcontractors, and sends them to the site. No Australian law prescribes the form of a commercial cleaning contract. The law sets the floor under it: what the cleaners must be paid, who is responsible for their safety, and which terms will not be enforced.

The main instrument is the Cleaning Services Award 2020 (MA000022), made by the Fair Work Commission. Clause 4.1 says it covers, "to the exclusion of any other modern award", employers in the contract cleaning services industry throughout Australia and their employees in the classifications it defines. Clause 4.2 defines that industry as "the business of providing cleaning services under a contract", including event cleaning, hygiene and pollution control, trolley collection and "minor property maintenance that is incidental to cleaning". The version current at the time of writing is dated 1 July 2026; minimum rates move each year with the Commission's annual wage review. Where a contractor has an approved enterprise agreement, that applies to its employees instead of the award.

Around the award sit four other pieces of law:

• the Fair Work Act 2009, on sham contracting, transfer of business and liability for being involved in an underpayment;
• the Commonwealth's Work Health and Safety Act 2011, which follows the model WHS Act that every state and territory except Victoria has adopted in its own Act; Victoria has the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004;
• the unfair contract terms protections in the Australian Consumer Law, Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010;
• for large organisations, the Modern Slavery Act 2018, which requires entities with consolidated revenue of at least $100 million to report on the risks in their operations and supply chains.

A contract that prices the work below what the award allows, pushes every risk onto the smaller party, or leaves nobody coordinating safety on site will fail, whatever the specification says.

02

What a commercial cleaning contract should cover

Most disputes about cleaning come from something the contract left vague. Whether it is the client's standard form, the contractor's terms or a head agreement with a schedule for each site, it should cover:

1. The parties, the site and the term: who the client is, the areas included, the start date, the term and any options to extend.
2. The scope and specification: every area by type (offices, amenities, kitchens, lifts, stairwells, car parks, end of trip facilities), what is done in each and how often, with daily, weekly and periodic tasks listed separately.
3. The standard: what "clean" means for each area, in words both sides can inspect against.
4. Hours and access: when cleaning happens, keys, cards and alarm codes, sign-in and restricted areas.
5. Labour: the hours per week the price is built on, whether subcontracting needs the client's consent, and what award or enterprise agreement applies.
6. Consumables and equipment: who supplies paper, soap, bin liners and sanitary services, and who maintains machines.
7. Periodic work: carpets, hard floors, high-level dusting, windows and pressure washing, each with a frequency and a record that it was done.
8. Reporting and inspection: how problems are reported, response times, joint inspections and what records are shared.
9. Work health and safety: procedures, safety data sheets, site inductions, incident reporting, and how the parties consult and coordinate.
10. Insurance: public liability and workers' compensation, with certificates of currency.
11. Price and review: what the price includes, how it changes when award rates rise each July, and how extra work is approved.
12. Variation and termination: how the scope changes, notice on both sides, and the handover at the end.

A lump-sum price for "cleaning of the building" with no frequencies invites a slow slide in what is delivered.

03

Pricing a cleaning contract that can pay the award

Labour is the largest part of the cost of cleaning, so the price is mostly a promise about hours and rates. A client comparing quotes should ask for the hours per week behind each price and check that those hours, at award rates or better, could produce it. A quote that cannot is a warning, not a bargain.

Provisions of the Cleaning Services Award 2020 that bear directly on price:

• Classifications. Schedule A sets three levels, Cleaning Services Employee Level 1 to Level 3.
• Loadings. Part-time employees receive an allowance of 15% on the minimum hourly rate (clause 10.2), and casuals a loading of 25% (clause 11.2).
• Minimum shifts by area. Under clause 13.5(c), a part-time or casual employee must be rostered for at least 2 consecutive hours at a location with a total cleaning area of up to 2,000 square metres, 3 hours from 2,000 to 5,000 square metres, and 4 hours from 5,000 square metres. A one-hour minimum applies only to a lone employee at a stand-alone location of no more than 300 square metres where a longer shift across locations is not practicable. The minimum must be paid even if the work takes less time (clause 13.5(d)).
• Penalty rates. Clause 20.2 sets rates for weekday shifts that start before 6.00 am or finish after 6.00 pm, shifts finishing after midnight, and Saturday, Sunday and public holiday work. Most office cleaning is done early or late, so these are usually in the price.
• Allowances, including the toilet cleaning allowance (clause 17.9).

The contract should say how the price moves when minimum rates change each July. A fixed price for three years with no review leaves the contractor absorbing increases or cutting hours, and the cut hours show up on site.

Underpayment is not only the employer's problem. Section 550 of the Fair Work Act 2009 treats a person "involved in" a contravention as having contravened it, including anyone "in any way, by act or omission, directly or indirectly, knowingly concerned in or party to the contravention". Section 558B extends liability to a responsible franchisor or holding company that knew, or could reasonably be expected to have known, that the contravention by a franchisee or subsidiary would occur, or that one of the same or a similar character was likely, unless it had taken reasonable steps to prevent a contravention of that kind. A client that accepts a price it knows cannot cover lawful wages takes a risk it does not need.

04

Fair terms, subcontracting and safety across the chain

Many cleaning contracts are standard form contracts, and many cleaning businesses are small. Under section 23(4) of the Australian Consumer Law, a services contract is a small business contract if at least one party employs fewer than 100 persons or had a turnover under $10,000,000 in its last income year. An unfair term in a standard form small business contract is void, and proposing or relying on one is a contravention that can attract a penalty (sections 23(2A) and 23(2C)).

Section 24 says a term is unfair if it would cause a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations, is not reasonably necessary to protect the legitimate interests of the party it advantages, and would cause detriment if relied on. Section 25's examples include a term letting only one party terminate, vary, or renew the contract, or "unilaterally to vary the characteristics of the goods or services to be supplied". A clause letting the client add floors at will without changing the price deserves a second look.

Subcontracting needs its own clause. Cleaning is often passed down a chain, ending with an individual on an ABN doing the nightly clean. Section 357 of the Fair Work Act 2009 prohibits an employer representing a contract of employment as a contract for services, and sections 358 and 359 prohibit dismissing an employee, or making a statement known to be false, to engage them as a contractor for the same work. Requiring the client's consent to subcontracting keeps sight of who is actually cleaning the building.

Safety is shared. Under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 and the state and territory Acts that follow the model, the contractor as a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) owes its workers the primary duty of care (section 19), and the person with management or control of the workplace must ensure it and its entrances and exits are without risks to health and safety (section 20). Section 46 says that where more than one person has a duty in relation to the same matter, each must, so far as is reasonably practicable, "consult, co-operate and co-ordinate activities" with the others. So the contract names who inducts cleaners to the site, who fixes a hazard the cleaners report, who holds the safety data sheets, and how incidents are passed between the parties. In Victoria, read the equivalent duties in the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004.

Section 16 of the Modern Slavery Act 2018 requires a reporting entity's statement to describe the risks of modern slavery in its operations and supply chains and the actions taken to address them. Outsourced cleaning is part of that supply chain.

05

Managing the contract, and changing contractor

A contract is only as good as the evidence that it is being delivered: a record that each scheduled task was done, when and by whom; joint inspections against the specification; reported problems with the time each was fixed; and periodic work recorded on the day. A monthly meeting that works through those records, with actions and owners, keeps a contract honest. A cleaning accountability framework adds an independent view of labour practices. Variations should be agreed in writing, and priced, before the work changes.

Changing contractor is where cleaners are most exposed, and the award deals with it. Clause 29 of the Cleaning Services Award 2020 applies where a contractor decides not to seek renewal or is told its contract is to be, or is likely to be, terminated. The outgoing contractor must:

• give affected employees and their representatives written notice at least 28 days before the contract ends, or as soon as practicable if later (clause 29.2);
• set out any suitable alternative employment with it, with the location, hours and rates of any offer (clauses 29.3 and 29.4);
• give each employee not offered other work a statement of accrued entitlements and service, and invite them to consent to their name going to the incoming contractor (clause 29.5);
• give the incoming contractor the names of those who consent, and organise a meeting between them (clauses 29.6 and 29.7).

The incoming contractor must give written notice of any offer it makes to those employees, and its terms, to the outgoing contractor and any representative the employee nominates (clause 29.8). Clause 33.4 deals with redundancy pay on a change of contract.

Whether the Fair Work Act's transfer of business rules apply is a separate question. Under section 311 there is a transfer of business when an employee's employment ends, they are employed by the new employer within 3 months doing the same or substantially the same work, and the two employers are connected in one of the ways in subsections (3) to (6): assets passing under an arrangement between them, outsourcing from old to new, the new employer ceasing to outsource to the old, or associated entities. A client taking cleaning in-house and employing the contractor's cleaners is the case in subsection (5). A change from one contractor to another turns on those tests and the facts, so take advice where it matters, and make the contract require both contractors to cooperate with the handover.

The client's part is practical: access for the meeting on site, the specification, keys, cards and codes, and a clear start time.

06

Where the contract record fails, and what SiteClara does about it

Cleaning contracts rarely fail on the signing. They fail in the gap between the specification and the night shift. The amenities sheet on the back of the door is initialled for the whole week on Monday. The periodic carpet clean is invoiced but nobody saw it done. A leaking tap is mentioned to whichever cleaner was passing and is still leaking a fortnight later.

SiteClara records work at the location. A printed QR poster, with an optional NFC tag behind it, sits at each place where checks are scheduled, such as an amenities block, a lift lobby, an end of trip facility or a car park level. The cleaner scans or taps on their own phone, with no app to install, and marks the scheduled check done, with a photo when the check asks for one, or says what stopped it. A problem can be reported at the same tag, and it goes onto the team's list of open jobs until someone closes it.

The supervisor sees the day's checks and open jobs, adds a note where needed and approves a daily report that goes to nominated client or management contacts the next morning, showing what was done, what was reported and what is still open. Both sides then bring the same record to the monthly meeting.

07

Questions people ask

How do you write a simple contract agreement?

The ACCC's Contracts page says a contract is "an agreement made between 2 or more parties that is legally enforceable", and that there is generally a contract "whenever a seller makes an offer and a buyer accepts it". Acceptance can be by signing, by saying so, or by actions such as paying. There is still a contract even with no written document, but for cleaning, write it down: the parties, the site, the scope and frequencies, the price and how the agreement ends.

What should a cleaning contract include?

The ACCC's Contracts page says written contracts have terms and conditions that "set out the rights and responsibilities of each party". For cleaning, that means the areas and tasks with their frequencies, the standard, hours and access, labour and subcontracting, consumables, work health and safety, insurance, price review, and variation and termination. The labour terms have to fit the Cleaning Services Award 2020, including its change of contract steps in clause 29.

How do you write a cleaning contract agreement?

Write it so both sides can live with it, and start from the unfair contract terms law. The ACCC's guidance on unfair contract terms explains that since 9 November 2023 it protects small businesses with fewer than 100 employees or less than $10 million in annual turnover, in a standard form contract the other side cannot change. A term a court finds unfair is void, and penalties apply. Many cleaning businesses are small enough to be protected, so avoid terms that let only one side vary, renew or end the contract.

08

Where to read more, and a list to take away

Read the current Cleaning Services Award 2020 on the Fair Work Commission's site: coverage (clause 4), hours and minimum shifts (clause 13), penalty rates (clause 20), change of contract (clause 29) and redundancy on a change of contract (clause 33.4). The Fair Work Act 2009 has transfer of business in Part 2-8, sham arrangements in sections 357 to 359 and involvement in contraventions in section 550. For safety, read your state or territory's WHS Act, modelled on the Work Health and Safety Act 2011, or Victoria's Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. For contract terms, read sections 23 to 25 of the Australian Consumer Law in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.

Before you sign or renew a cleaning contract, check that:

• every area is listed with its daily, weekly and periodic tasks and frequencies;
• the standard for each area is written in words both sides can inspect against;
• the price shows its hours per week, and those hours at award rates, penalties and loadings included, could produce it;
• the contract says how the price changes when award rates change each July;
• subcontracting needs the client's consent;
• no term lets only one side terminate, vary or renew, or change the scope without changing the price;
• the contract names who inducts cleaners, who fixes reported hazards and how incidents are reported;
• scheduled and periodic work leaves a record on the day it is done;
• the end is planned: notice, handover and the award's change of contract steps.