Farida Iqbal, Sydney
On March 7, the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) granted the state's childcare workers a 16% pay rise over two years. Childcare workers will be paid between $70 and $166 more a week, following the IRC's ruling in favour of a claim made by the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU), which argued that child care is undervalued because most workers are women.
The IRC also noted that child care is increasingly being run for profit and that parents are receiving increasing government subsidies, but these changes are not reflected in childcare rates of pay.
Gary Brack, CEO of the Employers First business association criticised the decision, saying it would force up childcare fees. Federal community services minister Mal Brough also criticised the decision: "I don't know of any small business in any part of the Australian economy that could substantiate paying between $80 and $160 a week more and is able to stay in business."
The argument that "parents will have to foot the bill" sidesteps the fact that there have been massive cuts in childcare funding by the federal government; the sector has lost close to $1 billion under PM John Howard. There is a shortage of 30,000 childcare places.
Childcare workers are among the most poorly paid professionals in NSW, but parents should not have to foot the bill for decent pay for these workers. Working families are already spending, on average, 18% of their income on child care. The federal government should pay.
A massive injection of funding into public childcare services is needed. "You can't have an industry based on the backs of poorly paid women. It's unjust", said Annie Owens, the LHMU childcare union secretary.
Speaking to the media outside the IRC on March 7, Owens pointed out that legal victories such as the LHMU's NSW childcare pay equity case will not be possible under the federal government's new Work Choices laws, because the legislation removes the possibility of challenging gender inequity in the workplace through formal channels.
From Green Left Weekly, March 29, 2006.
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