A childcare company that is being paid $26 million to acquire 31 underperforming centres from ASX-listed G8 Education and has previously run into multimillion-dollar financial woes, has now been accused of not paying its staff their wages and superannuation on time.
The union representing childcare workers, United Workers Union, last week fired off a missive to Genius director Darren Misquitta, claiming that staff across the country had been paid up to five days late on multiple occasions and that some employees had not been paid their superannuation entitlements for more than six months.
Darren Misquitta, director of Genius Childcare.
Tara Harper, a former educator at Genius Corinda in Brisbane’s south-east, said in the five months she worked for the company, she had been paid late five times. Harper resigned last month, saying she could not live with the uncertainty of not getting her money on time.
“Each fortnight, I’d stress and worry if I was going to be paid on time or not as I have a young family and enjoy doing things on the weekend,” Harper said.
“This restricted me from doing those things as I didn’t have the funds to do this, or the fuel. I was also unable to pay my mortgage on time, and being paid on a Friday it was impossible for me to contact my bank or anyone to say I was going to be late on payments. We never received any emails to explain what was happening. We were left in limbo, never an apology. Nothing.”
Harper said she had not yet been paid any superannuation, and claimed seven of her colleagues had quit since the start of the year because of the pay issues.
In its letter to Misquitta, the union said the issues were not resolved even after educators raised them with their supervisors and managers. Genius sent emails and text messages to staff acknowledging the issue, but did not provide a full explanation, according to the union.
In a statement to this masthead on Tuesday, a Genius spokesman said there had been delays in some payments to staff in the past six weeks.
“These have all been brought up to date, or are in the process of being brought up to date,” the spokesman said. “We have communicated to all staff who have experienced delays. To ensure this does not happen again, we have engaged a new third-party payroll processor to bring all payments up to date, and we are hiring additional administrative staff.”
According to the union, which conducted a survey across Genius’ 30 childcare centres around the country, staff in multiple states were reporting extensive delays. One staff member told the union they did not have any money to pay their rent or buy their groceries, and they “felt used” by Genius.
“Educators are already paid some of the lowest wages in Australia – it’s not good enough they are now facing pay delays,” the union’s early education director Carolyn Smith said.
“These workers are facing serious impacts on their lives through breaches of the Fair Work Act while a for-profit childcare centre neglects its legal obligations to its workers. The issue has obvious knock-on impacts for families and children who use their services.”
In a response to the union on Tuesday, Genius said it was looking at the matter and had engaged external lawyers to formally respond next week and finalise the matter soon.
Genius operates more than 30 childcare centres through a series of private companies, ultimately controlled by Misquitta, its sole director.
In October, it acquired 31 centres that had racked up a $3 million statutory loss last year from G8 Education, which paid Genius $26.5 million. Gold Coast-based G8, which has 430 centres under brands including Penguin Childcare and Casa Bambini, said an arrangement was in place so another provider could take over its lease liabilities, which was a better alternative than shareholders bearing those rental costs.
A Genius spokesman said since December, the company had taken control of 16 G8 centres.
Misquitta is also the director of DK Andaras, which is Genius Education’s largest shareholder, according to filings with the corporate regulator. DK Andaras faced two winding up applications in 12 months, both of which were ultimately withdrawn.
Misquitta’s luxury 40 hectare Flinders estate, The Goslings, was also put up for a mortgagee in possession sale. The property is under contract after an auction last month. Title records show the property is owned by KD Misquitta Investments, which Misquitta is a director of.
Meanwhile, the Herald Sun last year reported the landlords of a Genius Learning centre in Melbourne’s CBD pursued Misquitta’s company for $9 million over unpaid rent and parking fees.
The Genius spokesman said all these issues had been resolved. He said “trading conditions were highly affected by the aberrant impacts of COVID”, and it was a time that required landlords and tenants to both act in good faith.
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