Staff walk off job over pay, force closure
An Australian company is under fire after pay and superannuation issues that allegedly add up to millions.
A childcare chain with sites around Australia is facing questions about its future as parents at one Sydney campus were abruptly left without care and staff at the centre claim they haven’t been paid for weeks.
Things are so dire one employee of the Genius Early Learning childcare centre based in Pyrmont has been left with just 85c in the bank as wages remain outstanding.
Educators refused to work at the Pyrmont centre last week, forcing the closure of the centre for all but one day, leaving parents scrambling to find alternative care arrangements for their children.
News.com.au also understands there has been mass resignations of staff in recent weeks and parents have been withdrawing their children from the service.
But parents back the staff move and have been left appalled at how the people looking after their kids have been treated.
One parent, Matilda*, whose daughter was enrolled at the Genius centre, received an email on Sunday at 3pm last week informing her that the Pyrmont site would not open the next day due to “unforeseen staffing challenges”.
She described a big turnover of staff in the last three months, and days prior had learnt staff had wages owed.
“I want these beautiful educators to get paid and the (company) to be held accountable,” she said.
“The worst part is daycare educators are apologising and saying sorry we had to do this. I don’t expect you to take care of our child for free.”
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While the centre reopened on Tuesday last week, Matilda said an email was sent at 5.30am on the Wednesday informing parents several staff members had called in sick and it could not open. The centre remained closed for the rest of the week.
Matilda said she had pulled her daughter out of Genius and found a new centre. But she wanted to help the educators as she can’t “comprehend how they have managed this and had still turned up every day and taken great care of our daughter”.
“It seems wild,” the 35-year-old added. “A lot are on visas … and have English as second language too which makes them more vulnerable ... They keep turning up as they don’t want to let the children down.”
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Hayley* is one educator from the Pyrmont centre who has resigned in recent weeks. She claims issues with pay being late has been happening since June last year.
She claims she is owed more than three weeks of wages and also hasn’t had her superannuation paid since January – adding up to thousands of dollars owed.
Hayley said staff had reached out to Fair Work Australia and the Australian Taxation Office about the issues.
“We haven’t got any help from anyone and it’s desperate times for us. We are immigrants, at least in our centre there are a lot are immigrants, and a lot are on student visas,” she added. “It’s just so frustrating.”
She believes 10 to 15 staff alone have quit in the past few weeks.
“It’s made me feel so stressed out, rent is not cheap, being in Sydney is not cheap and … I’m using my savings to pay my rent, borrowing money from my friends. It’s very embarrassing – I’m a grown up,” she said.
“We have been working there for literally for free and … no matter what happened we would show up for work. We cared about the children, regardless of not being paid on time, but it comes to a point where I have to pay my bills.”
After staff walked off the job, Hayley said they would get demanding texts, seen by news.com.au, asking employees to confirm within 30 minutes if they would work the next day. But many have either quit or won’t return until they are paid.
Emma* is another Genius educator who recently resigned and she said staff have been left “very distressed” about unpaid wages. She claims she is owed weeks of wages, annual leave and superannuation.
She got fed up with the excuses on why pay was always late before it stopped even appearing in their accounts.
“It’s a pay issue, that there’s a separate payroll system, they changed payroll officers, we will look into and follow it up – it was always the same excuses,” she said.
“Now I’m just angry that they have continued to not be transparent to the staff and the families.
“The fact that management like to continually blame the staff for not opening when it’s clearly not the staff problem, it’s a management problem, as they are not paying us.”
Emma believes she will never see her hard-earned money and had to make the difficult decision to quit.
“We are upheld by a code of ethics that is the best interest of children and we blindly followed that and tried to do right thing by parents and kids when we are not paid,” she added.
“We hung in there and wanted to do the right thing as I love the kids and the family and we don’t do it just for the money.
“I want it to explode – I’m just angry. I’ve been looking after children for free.”
She believes that at least 40 educators are owed weeks of wages conservatively estimating it would add up to at least $80,000.
Emma also claims the staff were asked not to tell parents what was really going on about wage payments.
“It would have been bad for business if we told parents we are not being paid, they will take their children out and that’s what happened as parents don’t want to support a company that doesn’t pay their staff,” she said.
“It’s been heartbreaking knowing the reality and we weren’t able to say anything. The parents are on our side, which is reassuring. I’ve definitely lost a lot of sleep.”
Matilda agreed that parents were left in the dark.
“We were having these educators leave and some weren’t able to disclose they had resigned. Another educator would whisper she had left. Why didn’t anyone tell me us as when we are trusting them to look after my daughter and disappearing? It seemed odd,” she said.
News.com.au reached out to Genius Early Learning for comment.
Staff at Pyrmont were also told the ownership of that particular centre would be transferred to a company called Aspen Early Learning as part of a “strategic restructure” from 31 March.
Trouble has been brewing at the national childcare chain, which has 27 sites across Australia, for months. Educators from other centres have also refused to work or resigned en masse due to delayed payments of wages and super.
In NSW, Genius chain’s centres in Castle Hill, Dural and Clarence St have all closed.
Other Australian sites to shut down include Toowoomba in southeast Queensland and a centre in the suburb of Granville, Blair Athol in Adelaide’s CBD, Symonston in the ACT as well as Ashwood and Beaumaris in Melbourne.
The United Workers Union is suing Genius over an alleged unpaid superannuation bill which adds up to $7 million, launching action in court in December.
The “slow-motion collapse” of Genius Early Learning has been “traumatic” for parents, children and workers, said United Workers Union national president Jo Schofield.
“The full impact of a collapse will hit hard, with consequences for families and workers at about 27 centres across all mainland states and the ACT,” Ms Schofield said.
She said staff and parents have been subjected to the “cowboy behaviour” Genius for more than a year.
“We first wrote to Genius about late pay and unpaid superannuation in May last year, with unpaid superannuation dating back to November 2023,” she revealed.
“Educators struggling to do their best for kids have seen their rent payments bounce, credit scores go through the floor and some educators have relied on food parcels to put food on the table for their own kids.
“Sadly now with a spate of recent closures it looks likely our members will have to deal with the uncertainty of administration or liquidation, including possibly battling for what they are owed from the Fair Entitlements Guarantee Fund.”
However, Ms Schofield said unpaid super was not repaid via the government scheme so some employees will be “deeply out of pocket”.
“More broadly the behaviour of Genius has unpleasant overtones of the collapse of ABC Learning, and once again raises the question of for-profit companies in the provision of essential early education and care,” she noted.
“It’s not fair that a for-profit operator has relied on the goodwill of workers to keep its doors open.
“This likely collapse adds to the case for universal access to publicly-provided high-quality early childhood education and care.”
A Department of Education spokesperson said it was aware of the allegations made about Genius Childcare and reports of employees not receiving their entitlements.
“We acknowledge the stress that this situation has caused for many, including families accessing early childhood education and care (ECEC) and importantly for ECEC educators,” they added.
The Fair Work Ombudsman is currently investigating the claims raised against Genius Childcare, they noted.
*Names have been changed
sarah.sharples@news.com.au
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