Queensland child safety workers to walk off job over pay and conditions dispute

Thousands of Queensland child safety workers are set to walk off the job this afternoon over stalled negotiations on pay and conditions.

The Together Union has been negotiating with the state government on a new child safety and youth justice agreement since March and has been taking protected industrial action since August.

The union's assistant secretary, Dee Spink, said members would escalate action on Friday afternoon.

"Our members absolutely don't want to be walking off the job," she said.

"They already donate thousands of hours each month to working for this department and not getting paid for it, but they've simply got no choice in the matter because the government's not taking this seriously."

Child safety workers routinely report caseloads of 30 or more children against an agreed safe caseload of around 16, the union said.

Lucy Besnard, a child safety worker, said it meant kids were not getting their needs met.

"We really try and make sure that every child and young person is safe, but we know that if we can't get to go and do all the visits that we need to do … we know that we're just not doing a good job by them," the union member said.

"We want to, but we just can't."

More than 100 child safety officer positions also remain vacant, the union said.

Ms Besnard said the sector has been asked to do more with less and that they have "just run out of less".

She said many members were "sacrificing" being a parent to their own child to ensure children in the system were safe.

Child safety and youth Justice workers across Queensland will walk off the job for about two-and-a-half hours.

Employees are set to bring air mattresses to local members of parliament's offices to highlight cases in which children have spent the night in government offices waiting for suitable placement to be found.

In June, the state government confirmed children in state care have slept in offices but said it is a "rare occurrence".

"It's something that shouldn't happen," Ms Besnard said.

A Child Safety Department spokesperson said the government has made an offer and is continuing to negotiate enterprise bargaining agreements in good faith.

"The department has long established business continuity plans in place," the spokesperson said in a statement.

"We will continue to prioritise the safety and wellbeing of children and young people and work to minimise the impact on the delivery of critical services during the work stoppage."

Labor opposition spokesperson Meaghan Scanlon said the child safety system was in crisis and was hurting the state's "most vulnerable".