Blueline Laundry in Launceston receives grant to assist with staff literacy and numeracy skills

It's a simple job, but even her duties require numeracy - matching batch numbers on a screen to packages of sheets sent to clients all over town.

But the challenge is that Ms Pirlot is one of thousands of Tasmanians that have difficulty in numeracy or literacy.

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"Its just the numbers I have trouble with," she said.

Her company, Launceston's Blueline Laundry, was one of 11 organisations granted a share of $500,000 in government funding this week, as part of an initiative by literacy and numeracy campaign 26Ten.

The 26Ten Employer Grants initiative is aimed at helping organisations improve the literacy and numeracy of their employees.

According to 26Ten, Tasmania has unacceptable levels of adult literacy and numeracy.

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"It's a widespread problem and to some degree it's a hidden problem," said 26Ten services coordinator Jennifer Dunbabin, who was responsible for administrating the employer grants.

She said close to half of Tasmanian adults lack functional literacy, while nearly 60 per cent lack functional numeracy.

"As an example, about half of people couldn't understand COVID instructions ... the written word is still so important in communicating something complex and changing as COVID was."

Grant Coker-Williams, people quality and systems manager for Blueline Laundry, said the majority of his employees were either early school leavers, from migrant backgrounds or were living with disabilities.

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Many had difficulty in reading workplace signs and with using numbers, he said.

"If we have people that have trouble reading, or they can't read a safety sign, that is a problem. Also, we are packing orders for our customers, so if [employees] have trouble with numeracy, they may not be able to add up an order for a customer," he said.

"We understand the barriers and challenges that they face, and also the challenges that we experience ensuring the communications we give to people are as accessible as possible."

The program will provide funding for two part-time tutors to work on-site to improve literacy and numeracy for up to 25 employees.

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Blueline chief executive Michael Sylvester said he applied for the 26Ten grant because he believes employers need to act in a "socially responsible" way.

"Education is a basic human right ... and we want to do everything we possibly can to provide employees with the minimum education standards," he said.

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