Escorts on student transport vehicles paid just $12.05/hour

A woman contracted to the NSW Department of Education and Training to supervise students with serious medical conditions and behavioural concerns in transit between home and school has hit out at the department for paying a paltry $12.05 per hour.

The woman, who is contracted to be a student transport escort has asked that Carenne Gate not name them for fear of reprisals from staff at Carenne Special School.

The escort told Carenne Gate that she was shown a payslip from an aide at Carenne which showed they were being paid around $25.00 per hour. The escort told Carenne Gate:

"Our work isn't that different from that of an aide except we are required to supervise the students as well, in the classroom an aide isn't to supervise students, that is the teacher's job. We have a higher duty of care and are paid less than half, it isn't fair."

The rate of pay is also significantly under the federal minimum wage of $14.31. It is believed that the department gets around this by employing its escorts as contractors instead of as employees.

"How are we contractors, we bring nothing to the job, there are no tools of trade. We can't possibly be contractors, we are paid to supervise kids on their buses," the escort told Carenne Gate.

It demonstrates just how the NSW government looks after its employees and contractors at the lower levels of the pay scales while looking after top level bureaucrats and contractors such as Carenne Support which are connected to the department.