Konstantinos Manolopoulos has been cleaning schools for 25 years. For the past three, he has cleaned the middle campus at Mill Park secondary college, just a few kilometres from his home in the Melbourne suburb of Epping. But he is approaching the Christmas break with no job to return to in the new year.
Manolopoulos is one of about 700 school cleaners, at more than 200 schools, who are affected by a major contract changeover between cleaning companies and the Victorian government. Manolopoulos was told a couple of months ago that his job would wind up on 20 December when the government’s contract with ISS comes to an end. ISS has managed the cleaning of public schools in Melbourne’s west and north-east since 2018.
