NT childcare workers to walk off job

DOZENS of Territory childcare workers are expected to walk off the job on Wednesday as part of a national stand against low rates of pay

DOZENS of Territory childcare workers are expected to walk off the job on Wednesday as part of a national stand against low rates of pay. Picture: MATHEW FARRELL

DOZENS of Territory childcare workers are expected to walk off the job on Wednesday as part of a national stand against low rates of pay.

The walk off will happen at 3.20pm — International Women’s Day — as workers ask the Federal Government for help. United Voice childcare union organiser Bronwyn Channon said low wages for childcare educators were not good enough.

“This is about the inequity of pay, particularly because early childhood education and care is 95 per cent women, and when you compare their wages with male dominated industries it’s not good enough,” Ms Channon said.

“The educators have had enough, they want to send a clear message to Mr Turnbull that they’ve had enough and that a responsible government would step up and actually fund ECEC appropriately, including the very poor wages of the people who work within that industry.”

Ms Channon said most NT educators were earning about $20 an hour, half the average national wage. She said they also earn less than workers in male-dominated professions.

A carpenter with a certificate III qualification earns $23.08 an hour, while a childcare worker with the equivalent qualification earns $20.61, an annual wage difference of more than $5000.

Casuarina Childcare Centre director Alice Casimiro-Branco is one of the workers walking off the job tomorrow.

“The responsibilities we have, plus the qualifications, we should be paid for what we do,” she said. “We have huge legal responsibilities, educational responsibilities, it’s important that the Government recognises our profession and pays us for it.

“We can’t recruit and retain quality workers because they’d rather work in Coles or Woolies because they earn more there than with us. We believe we should earn as much as the male-dominated industries.

“We don’t work with machines, we work with people who are the future of this country. That’s why this is important.”