WHAT: Hundreds of cleaners rally for safe, secure jobs.
WHEN: 12 noon for 12.30pm, Saturday May 11
WHERE: Parramatta Square (Smith Street end), Parramatta
VISUALS: Rally speakers address a large rally of cleaners and their supporters.
In the largest rally of NSW school cleaners in decades, cleaners will take their fight for safer, more secure cleaning jobs to the streets of Parramatta on the weekend.
Cleaners responsible for cleaning in schools, TAFEs, police stations, courthouses and other NSW Government buildings are calling for an end to the failed privatisation of cleaning.
Hundreds of cleaners will be supported on the day by unions who have also urged the NSW Government to step in to provide cleaners with the safe, secure jobs they deserve.
“Cleaners are essential in keeping our public schools, police and ambulance stations, TAFE campuses, court houses, and government offices safe and hygienic,” says Unions NSW Secretary Mark Morey, who will be speaking on the day.
“The outsourcing of their jobs to private contractors has resulted in a race to the bottom, with cleaners facing job insecurity, low pay, excessive workloads, and inadequate supplies and equipment. This is unacceptable and must change.”
Representatives from other key unions will also speak in support of cleaners, including the NSW Teachers Federation, the NSW Public Service Association and the NSW Police Association.
“More than 7000 cleaners in every corner of NSW have faced a broken contracting system that leaves them as second class citizens inside NSW Government buildings,” United Workers Union Property Services Director Lyndal Ryan, who is also speaking at the rally, says.
“Cleaners’ injury rates are high, they struggle to get the time and equipment they need to do their jobs and they are often not even paid correctly.
“There is a great opportunity here for the NSW Government to fix the appalling conditions school and other government building cleaners are facing every day.”
School cleaner Milena, who has cleaned schools for 24 years, says: “Conditions are getting worse, workloads have increased, cost of living is through the roof and our wages are so low.”
School cleaner Judith, who has cleaned schools for 18 years and will speak at the rally, says: “Under the current failed privatisation model we are stuck in, we don’t get the recognition we deserve.”
ENDS
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