clontaago
First Grader
CHILDCARE workers are being paid up to $313 a week less than they were promised just two months ago.
Operators of Childs Family Kindergartens, which run 37 centres across New South Wales, are offering employees contracts cutting between $138 and $313 from their weekly pay, according to the childcare union.
Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union NSW President Jim Lloyd said the childcare operator was "attempting to rob childcare workers".
"'The childcare workers have every right to be extremely angry about this," he said.
"We've been in contact with a large number of childcare workers about this - dozens of them."
Just two months ago, about 15,000 childcare workers won a minimum pay rise of $86 a week after the Industrial Commission found workers in the female-dominated industry were undervalued.
The commission ruled the basic childcare wage would increase by $86.43 from $524 per week.
The weekly wage of a first-year qualified childcare worker would rise by $71 from $616 per week and a second-year qualified childcare worker would earn an extra $136 per week on their salary of $625.
Mr Lloyd said since the Federal Government's new workplace laws were introduced, some private sector childcare operators were offering employees Australian Workplace Agreements that effectively denied workers the promised pay rises.
The AWAs also removed:
SICK leave entitlements;
REST breaks;
ANNUAL leave loading;
SUPERVISOR allowances;
OVERTIME payments beyond two extra hours work; and
A FIRST-aid allowance.
Mr Lloyd said: "How many people will it affect? Potentially 15,000."
Federal Opposition industrial relations spokesman Stephen Smith said the firms could remove the entitlements and conditions because, under the Government's workplace changes, the no-disadvantage test had been removed.
"As is evident in the Childs Family Kindergartens AWA, without the no-disadvantage test, entitlements and conditions can be stripped out of all individual agreement at the stroke of a pen," he said.
Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews said the Office of the Employment Advocate would check the agreement contains the minimum standards in terms of the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard.
Operators of Childs Family Kindergartens, which run 37 centres across New South Wales, are offering employees contracts cutting between $138 and $313 from their weekly pay, according to the childcare union.
Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union NSW President Jim Lloyd said the childcare operator was "attempting to rob childcare workers".
"'The childcare workers have every right to be extremely angry about this," he said.
"We've been in contact with a large number of childcare workers about this - dozens of them."
Just two months ago, about 15,000 childcare workers won a minimum pay rise of $86 a week after the Industrial Commission found workers in the female-dominated industry were undervalued.
The commission ruled the basic childcare wage would increase by $86.43 from $524 per week.
The weekly wage of a first-year qualified childcare worker would rise by $71 from $616 per week and a second-year qualified childcare worker would earn an extra $136 per week on their salary of $625.
Mr Lloyd said since the Federal Government's new workplace laws were introduced, some private sector childcare operators were offering employees Australian Workplace Agreements that effectively denied workers the promised pay rises.
The AWAs also removed:
SICK leave entitlements;
REST breaks;
ANNUAL leave loading;
SUPERVISOR allowances;
OVERTIME payments beyond two extra hours work; and
A FIRST-aid allowance.
Mr Lloyd said: "How many people will it affect? Potentially 15,000."
Federal Opposition industrial relations spokesman Stephen Smith said the firms could remove the entitlements and conditions because, under the Government's workplace changes, the no-disadvantage test had been removed.
"As is evident in the Childs Family Kindergartens AWA, without the no-disadvantage test, entitlements and conditions can be stripped out of all individual agreement at the stroke of a pen," he said.
Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews said the Office of the Employment Advocate would check the agreement contains the minimum standards in terms of the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard.
