The hopes of school cleaners across New South Wales were dashed as planned cuts to cleaning hours across 480 schools went unaddressed in today’s announcement.
Quotes attributable to Lyndal Ryan, United Workers Union Director of Property Services:
“The Government’s announcement lacked any mention of investment in school cleaning.
“Underinvestment results in a lack of training, poor equipment, undersupply of basic supplies and PPE and unrealistic workloads across our schools.
“Leading up to today’s budget, the United Workers Union called on the NSW Government to reverse their decision to cut cleaning hours.
“In the middle of a pandemic, and with a new cluster growing, the NSW Government is continuing down the path to slash the time our dedicated school cleaners have to keep schools and communities safe.
“Cleaners, teachers, parents and school communities remain in the dark about which schools will make up the 480 and when the cuts will come into play.
“School cleaners were refused the decency of detail and certainty today.”
A letter sent to schools from the Department of Education stated the government’s 2019 contract lets contractors calculate the amount of cleaning they believe each school needs. As a result, “under the contract, cleaning hours were to be reduced in 480 schools.”
The change was delayed in term one last year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the ongoing COVID crisis affecting the state, the government decided these cleaning cuts will now be introduced, but are yet to provide any further details.
ENDS
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