By Brendan Rees
The jobs of school cleaners across Casey hang in the balance as new State Government reforms set to tear up their contracts next month.
The Victorian Government will introduce a new system where eight zones will be created across metropolitan Melbourne and a single cleaning contract will be awarded for all schools in each zone as of July 1.
Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) have called for better enforcement of existing workplace rules, and “not a kneejerk response that puts people out of businesses.”
“This appears to be contradictory to Government procurement principals that allow small and medium business to compete in a competitive space with ‘big business,’” said Chief Executive of VCCI Mark Stone AM.
Star News contacted a number of schools that will be affected in Casey but either declined to comment or were not available.
Shadow Minister for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Neale Burgess said wiping out local school cleaning businesses was “just further proof that Daniel Andrews is nothing more than a bully.”
“Labor’s unfair changes to school cleaning contracts have wiped out over 700 small, mum and dad family businesses with the stroke of a pen. They have installed six major cleaning companies, one of which, ISS Facility Services, was fined $132,000 for underpaying their workers,” he said.
“This unionised takeover of our school cleaners is a disgrace and the community should be outraged.”
Minister for Education James Merlino said the Government had a zero tolerance for poor labour practices and multiple investigations found vulnerable staff being underpaid and mistreated in this industry.
”Our reform will provide greater assurance that school cleaners receiving their legal wages and entitlements,” Mr Merlino said.
“There are a range of supports in place to help businesses during his transition phase and all incoming service providers must recruit from the current school cleaning workforce.”
Liberal candidate for Cranbourne Ann-Marie Hermans said attacking small family cleaning businesses was a disgrace with the Labor Government stopping at nothing to expand their union base.
“These new reforms mean schools, like Cranbourne Park Primary School in my electorate, will be dirtier for longer,” she said.
“I am an experienced school teacher and I know how difficult and demoralising it can be for staff and students to work in a dirty environment. It is not conducive to learning.”
