Parliament House's 44 cleaners met yesterday to discuss possible industrial action after waiting five months to move on to the new Clean Start agreement which began in July.

The Clean Start agreement was heralded as a national breakthrough in industrial relations following an eight-year union campaign increasing basic wages and enshrining better working conditions and more job security for some of the country's poorest paid workers.

For full-time Parliament House cleaners, the pay rate would increase by $1.14 per hour, moving the day rate to $17.60 and hour and the night rate to $20.97 an hour.

Part-time day rates would increase by $1.10 per hour to $18.83 and part-time night shifts would move by $2.06 per hour to $21.65.

Ms Gillard helped launch the agreement in July, saying it would make a real difference in the cleaning industry and warning that ''too many Australian cleaners work in circumstances where they're not properly paid, not properly trained and are the subject of victimisation and exploitation''.

''We want to make sure through the power of government money and government purchasing that we're also making that happen for people who clean Australian government properties.''

But her office said yesterday that the Commonwealth could not retrospectively change existing contracts and would not move to the new system until January 2010.

This is despite many state and territory governments having already moved to Clean Start including the ACT Government.

At a general staff meeting yesterday, the parliamentary cleaning staff agreed to launch a public campaign to highlight their low pay and lack of access to Clean Start conditions.

They have asked all Parliament House occupants to email Ms Gillard's office in protest.