Some of the ACT government's lowest-paid workers walked off the job for two hours on Wednesday morning, calling for an urgent increase to their pay to match the rapidly rising cost of living in Canberra.
General service officers - who perform cleaning, maintenance and technical duties across public spaces - marched on the Dickson headquarters of the government's Transport Canberra and City Services Directorate at 7am.
CFMEU ACT secretary Zach Smith said it was lucky the workers would only stop for two hours, because Canberra would "be rendered a disaster zone" if they stopped for two weeks.
"These are the men and women you see working on the side of the road in the middle of a freezing Canberra winter. They're cleaning bus stops and public bathrooms through a pandemic. They're mowing hundreds of kilometres of nature strips during long hot summers," Mr Smith said.
"They do vital work we all rely on yet we've let them become the working poor of Canberra."
The workers, many of whom are paid an annual wage of $50,925, want an immediate increase to the base pay to $61,000 a year.
Mr Smith said that was still not a fair reflection of the work performed by general service officers.
"We have been encouraged by our interactions with the ACT government on this issue to date, but it's also vital they understand we will not relent on this campaign for fairness," he said.
"[General service officers] deserve a wage that enables them to live in the city they keep clean and functional for everyone else."
The ACT Labor party conference last month heard some general service officers had resorted to sleeping in their cars as they were unable to afford housing in Canberra on their current wages.
Chief Minister and Labor leader Andrew Barr told the conference in a speech the ACT government would continue to strengthen the conditions in the territory's public service.
Mr Barr said the government would actively lift up some of its lowest paid staff.
