Up to $56 an hour: Councils desperate for lollipop people amid shortage

Lollipop lady Rachel King first pulled on a school crossing coat and hat 15 years ago when her children were at primary school in Pakenham in Melbourne’s outer south-east.

Her children are now in their 20s, but King is still helping ferry children in the Cardinia Shire Council area across busy school crossings every school day.

Rachel King at Parker Street in Officer, where more school crossing supervisors are needed.Credit:Joe Armao

“I’ve formed an attachment with the kids, you see them go from kinder right through to year 12 and see their personalities change,” the 51-one-year old says. “I just love it.”

But as schools return for 2023 next week, Melbourne councils are desperate to hire more people like King.

Across the city, at least 15 councils are hunting for lollipop people – or school crossing supervisors – as dangerous school crossings are going unsupervised or being backfilled by council staff.

The problem isn’t limited to metropolitan areas. Latrobe and Wangaratta city councils and the Surf Coast, East Gippsland and Hepburn shire councils are also on the hunt for staff.

Cardinia, which employs King, is seeking more staff to cover its 75 crossings, particularly in Officer and Beaconsfield.

The statewide shortage of lollipop people has prompted calls for better employment conditions and government funding to fill the vital roles, which are routinely paid for in shifts of either 45 minutes or one hour.

There is no uniformity of conditions for crossing supervisors, with advertised rates for casual roles between $35 and $40, and part-time rates between $25 and $30 with leave entitlements.

King, who also works as an in-home disability and aged care worker in between her crossing job, said the short “bookend” shifts suited her.

Janie, a school crossing supervisor in the City of Yarra who requested a pseudonym, is employed by Hoban Recruitment which recruits for eight councils, according to its website.

Rival agency Chandler Macleod recruits for Monash and Stonnington councils.

Janie said the casual conditions offered by Hoban were preferable to being directly employed by the council. Hoban pays her for two hours ($56.28) for every one-hour shift worked.

But even so, Janie she said the lack of sick pay was a problem, and the pay should better reflect the danger of the job and exposure to the weather.

“There’s no one to cover you, so I’ve been to work sick before,” she said. “I’ve met so many wonderful people doing this job and I feel obliged to make sure the kids are safe.”

Samples of school crossing supervisor pay (direct council employees)

• Knox City Council: $36.48 per hour (casual) + superannuation
• Boroondara: $38.09 per hour (casual) + superannuation
• Bayside Council: $37.84 per hour (casual) + superannuation
• Rural City of Wangaratta: $35.05 per hour (casual) + superannuation
• Surf Coast Shire $36.46 per hour (casual) + superannuation
• Latrobe City: $35.96 per hour (casual) + superannuation
• Manningham: $36.97 per hour (part-time) + superannuation
• Melbourne City Council: $27.46 per hour (part-time) + superannuation
• Surf Coast Shire: $30.04 per hour (part-time) + superannuation
• Latrobe City: $28.77 per hour (part-time) + superannuation

Pay rates may also include additional industry allowances

Hoban did not respond to requests for comment. Chandler MacLeod said it was seeking 15-30 people for roles in the Monash and Stonnington council areas, but would not reveal the pay rates on offer.

A spokeswoman for the City of Yarra said the council offered its crossing supervisors “generous pay and conditions that are competitive, and in some cases higher than neighbouring councils”, but did not reveal what the rate was.

Yarra councillor Stephen Jolly said he had fielded a number of complaints about the lack of crossing supervisors from parents and schools in the area.

He labelled the 45-minute and one-hour contracts as “American-style employment conditions even in some of the most progressive local governments in Australia”, and blamed the “immoral” conditions for the shortage of staff.

“Do we need an accident to happen to ask why did a school not having a school crossing supervisor?” he said.

But Dreena Gray, chairperson of School Crossings Victoria, said the shortage was nothing new. She said working an hour in the morning and another in the afternoon could suit many people, including retirees, university students and mothers with school-aged children.

“This job gives you community involvement, a sense of worth that you’re actually contributing something in the community,” she said.

Boroondara Mayor Felicity Sinfield, whose municipality has 114 school crossings, called on the government to fully fund the positions, as state grants fell “well short of the cost of delivering the service”.

“The state government is responsible for education, not council,” she said.

A government spokesman said school crossing supervisors were a shared responsibility between local and state governments, as 70 per cent of crossings were on local roads and 30 per cent on arterial roads.

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