Thursday, 8 February 2024

School cleaning

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (17:26): (687) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Education, and the action I seek is for him to urgently reverse his decision to continue the privatisation of school cleaning in Victoria. For many years school cleaners in Victoria, through their union the United Workers Union, have been campaigning for the Victorian state government to reverse the privatisation of school cleaners which occurred under Jeff Kennett. School cleaners in Victoria work for private companies, where businesses systematically seek ways to cut their costs and present themselves as attractive and cheap options. As a result Victorian school cleaners currently race to perform their work in unsafe conditions, with teachers forced to pick up the slack.

Cleaners are bullied and isolated and often cannot afford to pay their bills. When it comes to changes of contracts, as we have just seen, many do not even know if they will still have ongoing employment. This is happening to cleaners in my electorate and right across Victoria. It is happening to essential workers who protected us during the worst days of the pandemic. They deserve better from this Labor government. By contrast, school cleaners in Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and the ACT who are direct employees of the public education system have the time, resources, respect and working conditions that give them a good quality of life.

The former education minister conducted a review into the current contract model, and he confirmed that the current model is broken and that the only solution is for the state government to directly employ school cleaners. Going against the advice of this review and without personally meeting with school cleaners, the newly appointed education minister unilaterally decided not to go forward with insourcing school cleaning. He instead put the contracts out to tender. This continues the privatisation model and enables companies like Serco to continue profiting off the hard work of cleaners.

Going into Christmas, many school cleaners had their hours cut and pay slashed and lost their conditions, with some workers losing up to 60 per cent of their income. One example is that of a union member having their wage cut from $49,000 to $19,000 per year. This is happening on the watch of the government. We must ensure that those who are turfed out of their jobs are given employment and those who have suffered cuts have their hours restored, and we must put an end to the current tender process for 2025 and directly engage government cleaners now. I urge the minister to take action to fix the current crisis in school cleaning that has occurred on his watch and help these vulnerable workers.