United Voice News
Childcare professionals refuse to be left out of portable long service leave
A delegation of childcare professionals will today press their claim with the ACT Government to be covered by the ACT Community Sector Portable Long Service Leave Scheme.
The childcare professionals will hand over a petition with over 600 signatures of workers from 81 centres to Robert Gotts, chair of the Steering Committee for the Community Services Sector Long Service Leave Scheme.
“The childcare sector is concerned about the delay in enacting the portable long service leave legislation and is anxious that negative comments made by a small number of childcare employers may serve to scuttle the scheme’s introduction,” says Yvette Berry, ACT childcare campaign coordinator of the LHMU – The childcare union.
“The ability to access and retain qualified childcare professionals and other community sector workers in the ACT continues to be at crisis point.
“Like other community sector workers, childcare professionals find it difficult to remain with one employer long enough to qualify for long service.
“The childcare sector mainly employs women who, despite their commitment to childcare, often work in a number of different centres or in centres where ownership changes. This means they miss out on long service leave.
“Low pay and poor working conditions have caused a crisis in childcare making it difficult to attract and retain workers in this field. By making long service leave portable in this sector it will make working in childcare that little bit more attractive.
“Teachers in our public schools already enjoy portable long service leave. The same should apply for those who provide quality early childhood care and education for our under 5’s.
“These are industry-wide problems that need industry-wide solutions. Long service leave funds have the added benefit of protecting entitlements in the case of employer insolvency which could become and increasing problem as the economic crisis hits,” says Yvette Berry.
