Staffing scrutiny for ABC childcare

GOVERNMENT agencies are monitoring childcare staffing at ABC Learning Centres after ABC told the Queensland Supreme Court that relief staff did not turn up to work yesterday.

GOVERNMENT agencies are monitoring childcare staffing at ABC Learning Centres after ABC told the Queensland Supreme Court that relief staff did not turn up to work yesterday.

The court yesterday granted a two-week injunction to stop ABC poaching staff from recruitment agency 123 Careers, which supplies 8000 relief workers to the ABC childcare giant.

But the court order lets ABC hire staff through other agencies if 123 fails to fill childcare centres' requests for relief workers by 4pm the day before they are needed.

ABC's lawyer, Philip Tucker, told the court in Brisbane that some casual staff hired through 123 Careers had not showed up for work yesterday.

"The difficulty is that the numbers of staff required for my client to continue to be able to run the business have not shown up for work this morning," Mr Tucker said.

The Weekend Australian understands that ABC is able to use its own area managers and training officers to fill in for missing workers at childcare centres.

But an ABC spokesman refused to say whether any centres were left under-staffed.

"Both ABC Learning Centres and 123 Careers are committed to ensuring that all staff at ABC ... continue to provide high-quality care and support to families and children," ABC said in a statement issued last night.

123 Careers director Don Jones yesterday confirmed the staff shortages, claiming ABC had requested double the usual quota of relief staff nationwide.

"The facts are ABC requested 2216 staff for today," Mr Jones said. "This is about 1000 more than we would have expected and suspect that there are errors on their part in booking these staff. We are not disputing their booking but are in fact attempting to fill them.

"Because of the confusion caused by ABC actions, all our relief staff are absolutely confused and worried."

Mr Jones said 123 had to call 115 relief staff to find just one unqualified childcare worker willing to take a shift at ABC Flemington yesterday.

ABC and 123 have been feuding since ABC broke off its $70 million deal last week to buy 123.

Correspondence obtained by The Weekend Australian this week suggests that ABC had secretly tried to poach 123's casuals.

State governments, which are responsible for enforcing child-staff ratios -- the minimum number of staff needed to look after children -- yesterday confirmed they were monitoring the situation.

In Queensland, where ABC operates more than a quarter of the state's childcare centres, Communities Minister Lindy Nelson-Carr said her departmental officers had visited both ABC and other centres.

"Visits have been conducted today ... I'm not aware of any breaches," Ms Nelson-Carr said. "The biggest priority is the safety of the children.

Education Minister Julia Gillard said the federal Government "continues to monitor developments regarding ABC Learning Centres closely".

In NSW, where ABC operates 12 per cent of long-day care centres, Community Services Minister Linda Burney said her department had not taken any action against any ABC Learning Centre for breaching child-staff ratios.

"The department will continue to monitor ABC Centres as it does all licensed children's services as part of its regulatory monitoring regime," Ms Burney said.

ABC, which operates one in five Australian childcare centres, missed its deadline for lodging financial results yesterday, for the third time.

"Work continues on finalising the full-year result and prior period adjustments arising out of a reassessment of accounting treatments," ABC told the Australian Securities Exchange.

Shares in ABC crashed from a high of $8 to just 54c before trading was suspended in August, pending the release of the company's overdue accounts.