positivelypublic

Positively public win for schools workers

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Congratulations!

Thanks to your support of the positively public campaign, the government has agreed that school cleaners and schools officers in all new schools to be constructed in Queensland will remain government employees.

On 16 June, Education Queensland Director-General Rachel Hunter confirmed that the public private partnership (PPP) scheme as proposed by the government will be amended to ensure that schools officers and cleaners remain public employees, covered by public sector awards and union collective agreements - a major turnaround by the state government and a clear victory for our campaign.

We can all be proud of this achievement in protecting the conditions of workers in schools. This victory is proof that when ordinary workers come together to protect their workers and improve their workplaces, we can make real gains.

The positively public campaign brought the unions for schools officers and school cleaners, the QPSU and LHMU, together in constructive partnership.

The positively public campaign has been successful because of the efforts of thousands of union members. A massive rally by cleaners and schools officers outside of state parliament, lobbying by members of local P&C’s and local state MP’s, meetings in regional areas across Queensland – all this meant that the government simply could not afford to ignore our concerns.

Congratulations once again on a major win for all workers in schools and across the public service. Contracting out of basic government services hurts both workers and the community. The fact that schools officers and cleaners have succeeded in keeping their jobs positively public means that the threat of contracting out of basic services is reduced across government.

Given this strong victory by union members, there has never been a better time to encourage non-union members to join with us. Encourage your non-union work colleagues to join their union by visiting either www.lhmu.org.au or www.qpsu.org.au or phoning 1800 177 244 so that we can continue to make our union stronger for the battles of the future.