About 2000 health and education workers rallied outside state parliament on October 13 as part of their campaign for improved pay and working conditions. State school teacher aides and Queensland health workers angrily protested together, outraged at the state government's wage offer of only 2.5% a year over three years — less than inflation.
The teacher aides were also demanding increased working hours. They have faced cuts in hours in recent years. Their union, United Voice, wants a government guarantee that the aides could work for up to 35 hours a week.
Ipswich teacher aide Ann Cude told the October 14 Courier Mail that she joined the protest over her “unliveable wage”.
"We've got no security of our job, the hours change from year to year, and the banks won't even lend us money," she said.
Queensland MPs have just granted themselves a 2.5% wage rise. But United Voice state secretary Gary Bullock said 2.5% was a pittance for low-income earners.
He told the Courier-Mail: “(An increase of) 2.5 per cent when you're on $200,000 a year like those inside [Parliament], that's a reasonable increase. "When you're on $600 a week, like a lot of these workers are, it's less than $10 a week."