Early Childhood Bargaining for wage justice in early childhood
For the past six months, the AEU, IEU and UWU have been bargaining for a national early childhood multi-employer agreement (MEA). We were pleased to see the Treasurer Jim Chalmers state in the May federal budget that “there is a provision of money to increase the wages of the early childhood teachers and educators”.
Although this was a welcome announcement, the Commonwealth is yet to confirm the percentage wage increase quantum. We hope that the Fair Work Commission’s annual wage review on 3 June, which saw a 3.75% increase to both national and modern award minimum wages, will positively influence the government’s decision on salaries for the ECEC workforce.
The unions’ ask is for a 25% wage increase to address the low wages that early childhood professionals are receiving under the modern awards. Wage justice is needed to address the gender pay inequities and long-term undervaluing of work and expertise.
The unions are also looking to receive additional funding from the Albanese government for the inclusion of entitlements for professional development and extra planning time.
This MEA will be applied in a handful of Early Learning Centres (ELCs) across the country, covering approximately 15,000 teachers and educators. In phase two of this process, the unions will look to ‘scope in’ access to the MEA for all remaining ELCs, so that all teachers and educators currently employed under modern awards will be covered by a union-bargained agreement with better pay and conditions.
The parties will continue to meet and negotiate as we await more details from the Commonwealth.
With 11,000 more teachers and educators required over the next decade, as the state government continues to roll out and scale up two years of free kindergarten for all three- and four-year-old Victorian children, professional pay and good working conditions are key to attract and retain this growing workforce.
Negotiations underway for VECTEA and EEEA
Bargaining has commenced for our two early childhood benchmark agreements, the VECTEA and EEEA. These agreements cover a large portion of the sector across 22 local councils, early years managers, and stand-alone kindergartens.
With 11,000 more teachers and educators required over the next decade, as the state government continues to roll out and scale up two years of free kindergarten for all three- and four-year-old Victorian children, professional pay and good working conditions are key to attract and retain this growing workforce.
After the success of our log of claims process, early childhood members are continuing to engage and to stay up to date about the bargaining process via online statewide member meetings, workplace visits, and network meetings. The collective engagement of our members continues to build our union power so that these benchmark agreements offer the kind of pay and conditions that give employees in the sector a reason to stay.
