More than 300 cleaners will join the permanent staff ranks of Canberra's public health system in a move the government argues will benefit workers and the hospital despite a higher cost.
The cleaners working across Canberra Hospital and other community health facilities will join the staff on October 1, along with gardeners at the hospital, meaning they will no longer face different contracts with changing providers.
The ACT budget this year showed it would cost the government $13.8 million over four years to take cleaning and food services in-house.
Health Minister Marisa Paterson said insourcing cleaners' jobs would cost the government more than relying on contracted cleaners but the change would benefit the health system.
"This is a fantastic opportunity to build a more integrated health system, to be able to provide secure jobs for workers and also to improve and strengthen safety, hygiene and infection control measures within the hospital," Dr Paterson said.
Retired cleaner Helen Piggott said cleaners had been through a long, drawn-out process after going years without a pay rise to secure direct employment with the government.
"We're not having to fight all the time for a tiny little bit of money that we can't survive on," Ms Piggott said.
"We will now be able to survive and that means a lot, a lot. We will now be able to have the opportunity to grow. If you get to a point where you don't want to be a cleaner anymore you now have the opportunity to go into other positions."
United Workers Union president Lyndal Ryan said the move to bring the jobs in-house was a significant win for workers' security, dignity and respect.
"This achievement was not handed to us. It was won through the courage of workers, the strength of United Workers Union members, and the dedication of everyone who stood together and refused to give up," Ms Ryan said.
Public Service Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said direct employment meant cleaners and gardeners would have greater access to training and career development assistance, which would benefit staff and Canberra Health Services.
"We know that these workers have committed every day to supporting the people of Canberra, to supporting our healthcare professionals, to supporting our patients and carers and families and making sure that we're in a position to deliver exceptional health services," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"And now we're supporting them with secure, permanent employment."
Ms Stephen-Smith said there was still work needed to directly employ cleaners and food services workers at North Canberra Hospital and Clare Holland House.
"That's a different contractor that provides those services including food services at North Canberra Hospital," she said.
"So here at Canberra Hospital food services have been provided by direct employment for a very long time That's not the case at North Canberra. So that work is continuing over the next year to ensure that that workforce can also be insourced as well."
Contract cleaning roles have previously been insourced in the ACT's public schools and the government has also committed to insourcing public housing maintenance.
