United Workers Union is calling for school cleaning contracts in New South Wales to be brought back under direct state government control following claims of underpayments and unsafe cleaning workloads.
The claims follows the release of a survey conducted by United Workers Union of more than 400 school cleaners across the state.
According to the survey, half of respondents said that they did not have enough time to complete the necessary cleaning and a quarter said they had not been properly paid by private contractors.
Almost 80 per cent of school cleaners reported they worked split shifts, where their day can span 13 hours as they complete the bulk of their work before school and after school.
United Workers Union said it has also raised examples of work schedules that give one cleaner 10 minutes to clean a school’s 36 toilets – or about 17 seconds to clean a toilet.
The workloads for cleaners in the schools have led to calls for the privatised services to be brought back under direct NSW government control when the contract expires in December 2023.
It is understood the move would bring NSW in line with the systems in the ACT, Western Australia, and Queensland.
“It’s not good enough the state is spending $1.75 billion on this five-year contract but cleaners have in some cases seen their numbers more than halve at their schools,” Linda Revill, United Workers union property services co-ordinator, said.
“Schools aren’t being cleaned safely or properly and cleaners are barely scraping out a living on $22.76 an hour.
“When work plans literally allow 17 seconds to clean a toilet, we know we have entered the end game of privatisation. Cleaners are being sacrificed to achieve unrealistic goals,” Revill, said.
“NSW school cleaners are a living example of a failed privatisation that needs to be reversed, to the benefit of children, parents, teachers, schools, and the workers.”
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My school failed a government inspection this week. I do not have a working blower, I clean a school with 14 demountable classrooms, a demountable staffroom and admin, 5 blocks of demountable toilets. The only permanent structure is the library and multilit buildings. I get 6 hours and 56 mins to do all this and blow the grounds. I would love to do a straight shift from say 1am to 9am.
So sad ??. It needs to be fixed as soon as possible.