How to Tell If Your Commercial Cleaners Use Sham Contractors

Let me tell you a story that still makes my blood boil.

Meet Suhag Ajudia

Suhag's our operations manager and has been with us for four years now. But when he first came to Australia from India, he didn’t know any better. He took a job at a well-known hotel chain—a big-name company you’d assume does things by the book.

They told him he’d be paid $15 an hour for a three-hour shift.

But those “three-hour shifts” weren’t three hours. They were six. Every time.

That meant he was actually making $7.50 an hour, cash in hand. No payslips. No superannuation. No sick leave. No protections. Just a dodgy deal that left him and his girlfriend—both studying full-time at uni—scraping by to pay rent, buy groceries, and save for a car. And because his only transport was a pushbike, he had no choice but to take whatever work he could get.

📊 Case Study: Car Dealership Achieves $480,000 ROI, 11% Productivity Gain with In-Tec

This is an illegal and inhumane business practise called "sham contracting." And, unfortunately, the story I've just told you isn't a case of a single bad apple spoiling the bunch; it's estimated that 92% of the cleaning industry operates this way. That’s shady enough on its own. But here’s the part that should really concern you—organisations like yours are hiring these commercial cleaners without even realising it. Which is why I’m writing this article.

By the time you finish reading, you’ll know exactly what sham contracting is, why it’s so common in commercial cleaning, and the serious risks your business takes by working with a company that engages in it. You’ll also learn how to spot the warning signs before signing a contract and—most importantly—the specific questions you need to ask to make sure you’re hiring a cleaner that does the right thing.

Because if your cleaning company is cutting corners on wages, training, and legal obligations, what else are they cutting corners on?

What Is Sham Contracting? (a Definition)

Put simply, sham contracting is when a business misclassifies an employee as an independent contractor to dodge the legal obligations that come with having staff. Instead of paying proper wages, superannuation, sick leave, and annual leave, they pay workers a flat rate—usually in cash—so they can cut costs and sidestep the law.

And make no mistake—it’s illegal. It’s a loophole that dodgy operators have been using for years to underpay workers, avoid training them properly, and skip out on providing the right equipment and supplies. It lets them pretend to be a legitimate business while completely ignoring the responsibilities that come with actually running one.

Let’s be clear: if a cleaning company is using sham contractors, they are breaking the law.

And as of January 1, 2025, the laws have tightened even further. It is now illegal to knowingly underpay someone, and if a company gets caught, the businesses that hired them could also be held responsible. So if your commercial cleaner is engaging in sham contracting, you’re not just dealing with an unethical company—you’re potentially exposing your business to legal action.

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But let's not forget who the real victims are—the cleaners. The people turning up to your office every day, doing the hard, dirty jobs, only to be ripped off. They’re forced to work completely unreasonable hours just to survive. No security. No protections. No fair pay. This isn’t just about cutting corners—this is about real people being exploited, trapped in a system that treats them as disposable.

So if your commercial cleaner is engaging in sham contracting, you’re not just dealing with an unethical company—you’re potentially exposing your business to legal action.

If Your Commercial Cleaners Use Sham Contractors, Here Are Your Risks

Of course, this year's law change is only one aspect of your potential liability. There are other risks—the kind most businesses don’t think about until it’s too late.

For starters, when your commercial cleaners engage in sham contracting, it increases your operational risk. Most sham contractors aren’t trained properly. They’re not given the right equipment, the right tools, or the right supplies. So, what happens? Corners get cut. You end up with cleaners who don’t know what they’re doing, using the wrong chemicals on the wrong surfaces, damaging your property, or worse—leaving things dirty when they’re supposed to be clean. I’ve seen it firsthand.

Before one of my clients switched to us, they were paying for a cleaner who would show up, flick a duster around, drag a mop across the floor, and leave. That was it. And this isn’t some rare case—this happens all the time with companies using sham contractors. You think you’re getting a professional cleaning service, but what you’re actually paying for is someone rushing through a job with no training, no oversight, and no accountability.

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And then there’s reputational risk. If a company using sham contractors gets caught underpaying its workers, it’s not just their name on the line—it’s yours too. No business wants to end up in the headlines for supporting worker exploitation, but if your cleaning company is engaging in sham contracting, you’re tied to it, whether you like it or not. And trust me, people notice.

So, what are you really risking when you hire a cleaning company without asking the right questions? Subpar cleaning. Potential damage to your workplace. Your business’s reputation on the line. And all because your cleaner wanted to save a few bucks at someone else’s expense.

Sham Contracting Red Flags You Need to Know

If you’re working with a commercial cleaner—or thinking about hiring one—how do you know if they’re doing the right thing? Maybe you’ve just started looking for a new provider, or maybe you’ve had the same cleaner for years and never thought to question how they operate.

Either way, it’s worth taking a closer look. Because whether you’re researching options or doing a bit of due diligence after the fact, the red flags are there—you just need to know where to look:

• First, look at their website. If it’s a single-page site with hardly any information, that’s a bad sign. A legitimate company should have more than just a name and a phone number. But even if the site looks professional, dig a little deeper. Are they using stock photos of people cleaning? No uniforms, no logos, just someone wearing bright yellow rubber gloves like they’re washing dishes at home? That’s not a real cleaning business—that’s someone trying to look like one.
  
  
• Next, pay attention to the language they use. If they don’t mention employees anywhere on their website, they probably don’t have them. Instead, you’ll see vague phrases like “we pay fair rates” or “we support our cleaners”. That might sound good, but what they’re really saying is that they’re not paying by the legal award rates. If they won't say “we employ our cleaners”, that’s a red flag.
  
  
• Then, check their social media and online presence. A real cleaning company should talk about cleaning—best practices, industry standards, things they do to keep their clients’ workplaces clean and safe. But if all they’re doing is posting generic motivational quotes or talking about how great they are without ever mentioning cleaning itself? That’s a problem.

🔎 Related: How to Evaluate Commercial Cleaner Websites (Examples + Tips)

Sham Contracting Questions to Ask a Cleaner

Let’s say you’ve done your research. You’ve looked at their website, their social media, maybe even spoken to a few people. Everything looks fine on the surface. But now comes the real test—asking the right questions. Because this is where most dodgy cleaning companies get caught out.

• Do you have employees or contractors? Be warned—nearly every company will tell you they have employees, even when they don’t. They lie because they know you don’t want contractors. So don’t just take their word for it—push further.
  
  
• What award do you pay your cleaners under? There’s only one right answer: the Modern Cleaning Award 2022. If they hesitate or give you anything else, they’re not paying their cleaners properly.
  
  
• What does a cleaner cost you per hour, including all on-costs? If they avoid the question or dance around it, that’s a red flag. A proper cleaning company should be able to tell you straight up that the full cost of an employee—including wages, super, leave entitlements, and insurance—works out to around $42 an hour.

🔎 Related: Why You Should Want a Contract with Your Commercial Cleaner

• Are you willing to provide proof? Ask for their work cover policy, long service leave contributions, and payment summaries. A real company will have no issue showing you the paperwork. A dodgy one will make excuses.
  
  
• Can you provide references from current clients? Not just one or two handpicked testimonials—actual businesses they clean for, with names and numbers you can call yourself. Five-star Google reviews mean nothing if you can’t verify them.

If a cleaning company can’t answer these questions properly, won’t provide proof, or tries to dodge the topic altogether, you already have your answer. Walk away.

Yes, There Are Ethical Commercial Cleaners Out There

I know I’ve painted a pretty stark picture of what hiring practices are really like in the commercial cleaning industry. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t honest, ethical commercial cleaning companies out there.

For example, at In-Tec, we don’t cut corners. We don’t use sham contractors. We employ every single one of our cleaners, and they’re paid properly under the Modern Cleaning Award. That means superannuation, sick leave, annual leave, portable long service leave—the whole lot. We provide all the equipment, all the chemicals, and we make sure every cleaner is fully trained before they step foot on a client’s site.

And we do this not because it makes for a good sales pitch or because it’s some competitive advantage. We do it because it’s the right thing to do. If someone is cleaning your workplace—vacuuming your floors, emptying your bins, scrubbing your toilets—they deserve to be treated with basic respect. It’s that simple.

Many of you reading this might not have even realised this was happening before today. But now you do. And that means when you choose a commercial cleaner, you’re making a decision—whether you mean to or not—about the kind of business you want to support.

So, do your due diligence.

Look for the red flags you learned about today. And ask the right questions.

At the end of the day, your cleaners—the ones emptying your bins, vacuuming your floors, and scrubbing your toilets—deserve to be paid fairly. They show up every day and do their absolute best. The least we can do is make sure they’re treated like human beings.

If you're interested in learning more on how to choose the correct commercial cleaning partner for your organisation, you can download our guide, 10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Commercial Cleaning Company. Or you can contact us at any time with your questions, or to start a conversation about how we may be of service to you.