Union wants 70pc pay rise for childcare workforce

THE childcare union is demanding pay rises of up to 70 per cent for 150,000 workers..

The childcare union United Voice wants FWC to grant pay rises of up to 70 per cent for 150,000 workers.

THE childcare union is demanding pay rises of up to 70 per cent for 150,000 workers, comparing their skills to aircraft maintenance engineers, electrical contractors and CSIRO scientists.

The United Voice union, in its 2015-16 budget submission, wants public funding for childcare ­doubled to $14.7 billion a year within a decade.

It says taxpayers must pay for any wage rises for childcare workers flowing from an equal-pay case to be heard by the Fair Work Commission this year.

The massive claim will undermine the Abbott government’s ­attempts to make childcare cheaper for families, in the face of spiralling fees.

United Voice states that without extra public funding, “any claim for wages imposes ­additional costs on parents … only government can address the wage and workforce crisis in the sector and the emerging affordability ­crisis that parents face,’’ its submission states.

“In light of growing community concerns about the increasing cost of childcare, a trade-off between affordability and wage ­justice is not fair on either workers or the parents who depend on ­affordable childcare.’’

The union has asked the FWC to grant pay rises ranging from 39 per cent to 72 per cent, on the grounds that the female-dominated childcare workforce is paid less than men doing comparable jobs.

If the union wins its case, wages for the lowest-paid support staff would jump from $34,060 to $47,343. Wages would soar 71 per cent, to $96,564, for a worker with an early childhood diploma and two years’ experience on the job.

The union has sought a 72 per cent pay rise for daycare centre directors, to $106,496 a year.

The FWC is scheduled to hear the case this year.

The union secretary, David O’Byrne, would not say what male-dominated industries would be used to compare workers’ pay.

He told The Australian the union was waiting for the FWC to choose a “comparator” occupation or industry. In correspondence filed with the FWC, the union’s lawyers have nominated aircraft maintenance engineers and electrical contractors on a “provisional” list of male-dominated industries. The union also cites CSIRO staff, primary school teachers, manufacturing workers and general staff employed by universities.

Australian Childcare Alliance president Gwynn Bridge warned that the pay claim would send daycare centres broke. “Centres can’t afford to pay it and pass the fees on to families,’’ she said yesterday. “The claim would threaten the viability of the sector.’’

Mr O’Byrne said childcare workers, who now earn between $655 and $1191 a week, were “chronically underpaid” and deserved “professional wages’’.

“Having degree and diploma-qualified people earning $40,000 to $60,000 at best, with the responsibilities they have, everyone agrees the workers are underpaid,’’ he said.

United Voice says 97 per cent of childcare workers are women, and 180 leave the industry every week. “Wages in the sector do not adequately reflect the skills, qualifications, type of work or social and economic benefits of this work,’’ it says in its submission.

“This systemic undervaluation has been caused by a lack of recognition over many years that early childhood education is a skilled profession, whose skills are more than a simple extension of what is thought of women’s caring work in the home.

“We are seeking an appropriate wages remedy to properly value and reward this complex and skilled work.’’

The union says Australia spends less than half a per cent of gross national income on childcare. It wants public spending doubled to $14.4bn a year, in line with Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development recommendations, within a ­decade.