Camp Australia pleads guilty after overbooked Alamanda College OSHC kids kept in separate room

A childcare service which crammed Point Cook schoolkids into an off the books “extra care room” has been dealt a fresh blow.

Camp Australia has pleaded guilty to failing to comply with the conditions of a service approval. Picture: iStock

A National childcare company has agreed to repay more than $1.7 million in wage entitlements after underpaying thousands of employees.

Camp Australia landed on the Fair Work Ombudsman’s radar after a holiday camp manager raised “underpayment concerns”.

Camp Australia, which provides outside school hours and holiday-camp childcare at more than 590 locations nationally, self-reported underpayments to the Ombudsman in December 2019.

The company conducted an internal review and discovered it had underpaid entitlements including overtime, annual and personal leave and first aid, fare, meal and vehicle allowances.

The affected workers were located in metropolitan and regional areas across every state and territory.

Camp Australia owes $1.74 million for the breaches which occurred between 2013 and 2019 with some individual payments coming in at a tick more than $12,250.

The company has repaid about 99 per cent of the 7420 affected current and former employees, according to the Ombudsman.

“Under the enforceable undertaking Camp Australia will engage, at the company’s own cost, an independent auditor to check its compliance with workplace laws for the next two years,” Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said.

Camp Australia is also required to display notices on its website and on social media detailing its breaches.

It is also required to apologise to workers, commission training on workplace relations laws for managers and commission an independent organisation to operate a Hotline for employees for six months.

Camp Australia must also make a $122,167.56 contrition payment to the Commonwealth’s Consolidated Revenue Fund.

The latest hit comes after a court was told Camp Australia crammed dozens of kids in a separate room to avoid overcrowding following a booking fiasco.

Camp Australia pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court last Thursday following revelations the service cared for more children than permitted at Point Cook’s Alamanda College.

The court heard Camp Australia management exceeded its 150 child limit on 14 occasions between April and June 2018.

To cope with demand Camp Australia shovelled extra students into a “free care” space situated in the school’s drama room while using a hand written roll to take attendance.

Camp Australia made an application to the Department of Education and Training’s regulatory authority to amend its service approval to increase the maximum of children from 150 to 173 on April 19, 2019 however it was not approved until July 3.

A compliance check was conducted at the school on June 19, with service co-ordinator Easwari Prakesh revealing the service had been operating in excess of its approved number of children and using the free care room on busy days.

Up to 27 children were placed in the “extra care room” and an extra one to 18 children maxed the service’s attendance cap during each of the 14 sessions, court documents reveal.

The court heard management had previously notified children’s parents of the overcrowding problem and offered to have children transported by bus elsewhere however parents were “unhappy” with the proposed second location.

The prosecution said managers believed by not charging to keep children in the separate room, they were not breaching a law.

The court heard a Camp Australia regional manager informed the operations manager the “limited space” was “insufficient” for the number of children booked.

Simon Moglia, for Camp Australia, told the court managers prioritised children of low socio-economic backgrounds in the free area so disadvantaged families did not have to pay for the service.

He said all children still received adequate care.

“Our client made use of an ad hoc room that was made available to them,” Mr Moglia said.

“They thought this was the proper, right service in place and they could cope with the extra demand … of course this was not proper.

“It wasn’t a concealed deception between our client and the parents (and) there was no profit to Camp Australia for doing what it agrees to have done illegally.”

Sam Stafford, for the department, accepted there was no safety risk for the children.

Camp Australia, which continues to run the program at the school, pleaded guilty to a rolled-up charge of failing to comply with a condition its service approval.

The group, which faces a maximum $50,000 fine, will be sentenced at a later date.

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