Labor refuses to clarify if it will help fund a pay rise for childcare workers

Parents will be slugged with higher child care costs unless the federal government helps to pick up the tab for a widely anticipated wage increase for workers in the sector, employers have warned.

Labor is being urged to confirm it will contribute to a wage rise for childcare workers to ensure families aren’t hit with the extra cost.

Parents will be slugged with higher child care costs unless the federal government helps to pick up the tab for a widely anticipated wage increase for workers in the sector, employers have warned.

As several childcare providers prepare to meet at the multi-employer bargaining table where unions will demand a 25 pay increase for workers, a major business group says Labor’s lack of commitment to subsidising at least part of any agreed wage rise spelled a cost-of-living disaster for families.

The United Workers Union (UWU) on Tuesday lodged an application with the Fair Work Commission to commence the multi-employer negotiations — the first of their kind since Labor’s industrial relations changes came into effect.

Childcare workers are broadly supportive of a pay rise for their staff but Labor’s refusal to confirm if it will contribute funding any increase has sparked concern the cost will ultimately be passed on to parents.

Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke said he expected the government would be drawn into negotiations around the end of the year as a “third party” funder in the sector.

Childcare workers are widely expected to get a wage rise but there is uncertainty around who will pay for it.

“I’m not going to be giving answers today in terms of particular dollar figures,” he said.

“That’s how the negotiation works.”

Mr Burke said the government would enter talks in “good faith,” though Labor has not set money aside in the budget to subsidise a wage increase.

Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox said the “frank reality” of the childcare sector was that many employers did not have the capacity to absorb wage increases of 25 per cent for staff if forced to go it alone.

He said “alarm bells should be ringing” for parents who are already struggling to pay for childcare.

Ai Group chief Innes Willox says Labor must urgently clarify its intentions around the childcare worker pay rise.

Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke says the government will negotiate on wage rises in good faith.

Mr Willox said the government must urgently clarify what it was willing to fund and whether any support would be provided “uniformly” across the sector.

“The other big concern is that a deal is going to be struck between a small group of employers which ultimately will result in other employers that have played no part in the negotiations later being ‘roped into’ the coverage of the agreement,” he said.

“Nobody begrudges workers in the care economy a pay rise, but employers in these crucial sectors need confidence that wage increases will be sustainable.”

UWU early education director Helen Gibbons said “genuine” three-way negotiations between the union, childcare employers and government would be “game-changing”.

“These new multi-employer bargaining laws were designed to get wages moving for workers in low paid, undervalued sectors like (early education),” she said.

Childcare provider G8 Education was among the first to voluntarily sign up to the bargaining table.

“We look forward to advocating, along with others, for government funding to support higher wages and for greater recognition of the important role our sector plays,” chief executive Pejman Okhvat said.

Originally published as Labor refuses to clarify if it will help fund a pay rise for childcare workers