Dirty classrooms, upset cleaners: School cleaning under review

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Principals are vacuuming classroom floors, cleaning grimy surfaces and emptying bins, as “woeful” cleaning standards in government schools come under fire.

Aggrieved principals have pushed the Andrews government to launch a review into cleaning in more than 900 government schools, five years after Labor centralised contracts in a move designed to end the underpayment of cleaners, but which schools say triggered a decline in standards.

Ines Lizama says she and other cleaners aren’t given enough time to clean schools thoroughly.Credit: Justin McManus

Australian Principals Federation president Tina King said “copious numbers of schools” were expressing concerns about cleaning.

“We have principals vacuuming, emptying bins, teachers wiping down tables,” King said.

She said cleaning companies had workforce shortages and were asking schools to help them recruit cleaners from within the school community because they didn’t have enough personnel.

“The companies have got workforce shortages, and we’re just not getting the level of service delivery,” King said.

The sort of mess that confront cleaners at Victoria’s government schools.

“That’s concerning because we are coming up to winter months, we know with COVID additional cleaning was put in place to contain additional spread,” she said.

“If schools aren’t being cleaned enough, that’s not going to help the coming flu season.”

A messy toilet cubicle at a Victorian school.

In 2018, the Department of Education introduced an area-based cleaning model for more than 600 metropolitan government school campuses, which has since expanded to more than 900, with five service providers. The Victorian School Building Authority oversees contracts.

The change was part of a reform to ensure cleaners were paid properly, after investigations found vulnerable staff were being underpaid and mistreated by their employers.

But five years on, principals say standards have declined, while the union for cleaners says its members are still dissatisfied.

Chatham Primary School principal Chris Cotching said his Surrey Hills school had experienced huge problems with cleaning, and it was only after “persistent haranguing” that things improved.

He said the cleaning was “woeful” and “intermittent”, and that windows or doors would be left open.

“It’s been an issue on and off for two years, since we’ve come back from COVID,” Cotching said.

Most principals were resigned that cleaners wouldn’t do the job properly, he said.

“It’s just not good enough.”

Mordialloc College principal Michelle Roberts said her school had experienced ongoing problems with cleaning that she continually reported to the department.

“Just the state of cleanliness, or the lack of cleanliness, and constantly having to chase up the contractor to come back and do the job properly,” she said.

Roberts said the school’s rooms were left uncleaned and not vacuumed, bins were not emptied and in a number of cases, school buildings were left unlocked overnight.

A full rubbish bin at a Victorian school. Principals say bins are often not emptied, while cleaners say they don’t get enough time at schools.

Mordialloc College previously had a working relationship with a local cleaning company that was “part of the school community”.

Roberts said the school’s current cleaners would return to finish the job, but only after she complained to the department.

“We have to keep on top of them. If we don’t report daily that we are not happy, then things will go back to the way they were,” she said.

Principals’ associations, the Australian Education Union and the United Workers Union are all part of the state government review.

Cleaners say they don’t get allocated extra time to clean additional mess in schools.

Laverton’s Ines Lizama has cleaned schools for almost 20 years and is a full-time worker, but says cleaners are not properly paid and don’t get overtime, and don’t get enough time to clean schools.

During a 7½-hour shift, the 50-year-old must clean her school’s glass surfaces, mop and vacuum floors, empty bins and remove marks from walls. No extra time was allocated for additional tasks, such as cleaning vomit, Lizama said.

She wants the department to directly employ school cleaners, rather than subcontracting.

Lizama said at previous schools she was told not to eat her lunch in the staff room because she wasn’t a teacher.

“I was so upset. I said, ‘What is this world coming to?’” she said.

“I thought I clean the school, I thought I was part of the school, but no, I’m definitely not part of it. I think we will be part of the school if employed directly by the department, that’s when we’ll be united as a family.

“There’s not enough cleaners, there aren’t enough hours on the job, it’s been getting much harder to clean the schools.”

United Workers Union co-ordinator Linda Revill said school cleaning members had been fighting for change to the outsourcing model for years.

“Under the current model, workers have had to fight to have their basic working rights upheld, while some contractors have recorded multi-million-dollar profits,” Revill said.

“Contracting out school cleaning has only led to false savings; the only beneficiaries have been the contractors, not the schools, not the cleaners, not the other school staff, not the students and definitely not the taxpayer.”

A Department of Education spokesperson said schools continued to receive quality school cleaning services, but “after nearly five years of operation, the Victorian government is exploring opportunities to strengthen the delivery of cleaning services in government schools”.

“The Victorian School Building Authority continues to work closely with schools, cleaners and other representatives to ensure school cleaning is delivered to standard.”

Cleaning companies do monthly audits of their schools, which principals can attend.

Principals play a role in managing the services, by working with providers to develop a plan, monitor delivery and resolve issues of poor performance. The companies meet with schools once a term to review the previous term’s cleaning.

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