IEUVT supports historic early childhood education pay push

The IEU Victoria Tasmania has supported the IEU NSW branch as it lodged an application before the Fair Work Commission to allow supported bargaining for an enterprise agreement with a block of child care employers in NSW.

IEU NSW/ACT Secretary Mark Northam and Deputy Secretary Carol Matthews, front right, with IEUVT supporters at the Fair Work Commission, 6 June.

The IEU, the United Workers Union (UWU), which represents ECEC educators in NSW, and the Australian Education Union (AEU), which represents early childhood education and care (ECEC) teachers in Victoria, jointly lodged the application.

From 6 June, Secure Work Better Jobs Act reforms make it easier for unions to bargain for enterprise agreements with groups of employers.

An IEU contingent, including Deputy Secretary Kylie Busk and former Secretary Deb James, attended the Commission to greet the landmark application, one of the first under the new laws.

A group of over 20 ECEC employers in NSW agreed to be part of the application. Because it uses supported bargaining, the funding body, which is the Federal Government in this case, will also take part in discussions. It is hoped that it the claim can eventually be rolled out to other groups of employees.

Mark Northam, Secretary of the IEU NSW/ACT branch, said the new IR legislation will address long-term inequity in the ECEC sector.

“The ECEC sector plays a crucial role in the education of our young citizens, and improved recognition of their value and professionalism is long overdue,” Northam said. “However, four-year university trained ECEC teachers in some long day care centres are only paid modern award rates.

“This means they could be earning $30,000 a year less than school teachers with the same qualifications.

“Unsurprisingly, there is a crippling workforce shortage in the ECEC sector, with employers unable to recruit and retain staff. The 60 employers participating in this application nationally (with the three unions) want to pursue an enterprise agreement under the new supported bargaining stream. This is a historic step in utilising the new provisions.

“We hope improved pay should flow from this supported bargaining process quite quickly, as well as conditions which provide better access to professional development, so teachers can more easily maintain their accreditation,” Northam said.

The IEU’s national body, the IEUA, says the new federal bargaining laws provide “a critical opportunity” to better recognise and reward the work of thousands of early childhood education workers.

IEUA Federal Secretary Brad Hayes says the joint multi-employer bargaining application seeks to extend the benefits of collective bargaining to a group of essential workers previously “frozen out of the system”.

“Today’s new laws follow years of campaigning by unions to bring greater fairness and improved access to the bargaining system. The Labor government’s modernised laws enable unions to now extend our strong record of collective bargaining success to areas of the workforce left behind under a previous system that was stacked against workers.”

He said despite the importance of high-quality early childhood education being universally accepted across the community, access to fair bargaining opportunities and improved wages and conditions for early childhood workers has not been met with practical support.

“For too long, feminised industries such as early childhood education have been disregarded, and their wages and working conditions have suffered. Over 95% of early years workers are female and 35% are from migrant backgrounds. Turnover and staff shortages are at record highs.

“These essential workers deserve a much better deal.”

ACTU hails 6 June

ACTU Secretary Sally McManus says 6 June was an important day for workers’ rights.

“The new laws will help unions negotiate higher wages. During a cost-of-living crisis, our ability to collectively bargain for better pay and more secure jobs is crucial. 

“Workers in Australia have faced a decade of wage freezes under the former Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government. This collapse in workers’ wages was the deliberate objective of the Liberal-National parties: suppress wages while allowing CEO bonuses and corporate profiteering to skyrocket.

“The new laws that come into effect won’t magically increase pay. To do that requires strength in numbers and solidarity. But by coming together, workers in their union will now have a stronger ability to negotiate with employers.

“Today’s new laws are important, but we know there’s still more work to be done. Big businesses are used to exploiting loopholes in the law to lower wages and make jobs less reliable.”

Brad Hayes said, “The next phase of reforms in 2023 must address the remaining priority issues for IEU members including our right to take protected industrial action, further improvements to bargaining and good faith requirements and the ability of members to access their union in the workplace.”

UWU response

Helen Gibbons, the director of early childhood education at the United Workers Union, told The Guardian the application takes a “national approach to what is a national problem, because early childhood educators are paid badly everywhere”.

She said a “significant uplift [in pay] is required” because from July educators will be paid 15% less than aged care workers after a successful work value case in that sector and are already “paid less than retail” workers.

The UWU sought a 25% pay increase in its pre-budget submission. It said early childhood educators needed a raise in “recognition of the historical undervaluation of their work and the urgent need to retain and attract workers to the sector”.

“Early childhood education has a workforce crisis that will only get worse as it becomes more viable to work in aged care,” she said.

The supported stream would include the federal government around the table with employers, which Gibbons said reflected its “pivotal role” in funding the sector and therefore determining employees’ wages.

“We are really hopeful about the process… We’re excited to fix the chronic undervaluation of our members’ work once and for all.”