Childcare educators to walk-off work for fairer pay

Milton and Mollymook Early Foundations and Ulladulla Children’s Centre staff will be shutting their doors as staff rally to make equal pay and early education an election issue.

Early Foundations’ staff will close doors about 3pm and gather at the Milton centre as educators campaign for the federal government to increase subsidies and investment into the industry. 

Milton Early Foundations educator Sarah Wilden, who has enjoyed more than 30 years working in early childhood education, argued that current wage levels and government support did not reflect how important educators are in meeting the physical, social, emotional and cognitive needs of young children. 

“My passion for the rights of every child to access inclusive, quality early learning environments has not, unfortunately, been shared by successive state and federal governments, who continue to fund early childhood education around the needs of adults to re-enter or continue to participate in the workforce,” she said.

“As a single working mother to my own four children, I understand this is a part of the function that our profession provides. However, there is so much more at stake here.

“It’s time our policy-makers stepped up to the mark, and governments embrace the opportunity to significantly improve not just educational, but whole of life outcomes by investing our tax-payer dollars into providing inclusive, quality early learning environments staffed by qualified and equitable remunerated educators.”

Under the Children Services Award 2010 the minimum wage was $19.36 per hour as of July 1, 2018. 

Earlier this year the the Fair Work Commission decided that the national minimum wage should rise from $18.29 an hour to $18.93 an hour.

Ms Wilden, who has university and TAFE qualifications, is a few months shy of “hopefully” completing a Masters in Education, she said. Her wage is $25.08 per hour. 

“I do what I do for love, passion and satisfaction – definitely not for the money,” Ms Wilden said.

“Many other wonderful and passionate people are not able to make the choice to work for such low wages, and our children are the ones who will suffer.” 

Ulladulla Children’s Centre staff will be travelling to Canberra about 1pm on Wednesday to join a rally for equal pay, director Margy Reed said.

Almost 100 families, who will be affected by the closures of the three centres, supported the walk-off.

“It’s about government funding early education,” Ms Reed said.

“We don’t want families to pay more.”

Milton Early Foundations director Danielle Reid said more government support would alleviate costs for parents as she did not want to see costs reflect those at centres in Sydney, upwards of $150 a day.