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Pay childcare workers more: union

Posted July 5, 2009 00:17:00
Updated July 5, 2009 04:54:00

Australian Community Children Services says a higher level of care for children outweighs the cost.

Australian Community Children Services says a higher level of care for children outweighs the cost. (ABC News)

The union representing childcare workers says improving skill levels would encourage more people to take up the profession, but they also need to be paid more.

A panel of experts has told the Federal Government all childcare workers should have TAFE or tertiary qualifications and recommended a higher ratio of staff in centres.

Liquor Hospitality Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) secretary Louise Tarrant says improving skills and pay for childcare workers would encourage more to stay in the profession.

"We've got some great people who work in the sector now, but they really struggle to stay in the sector," she said.

"Wages are just too low for them to support their own families, so as we improve qualifications and recognition and value for this work, we absolutely need to increase the wages and conditions and job security of the workers in it."

There have been concerns the cost of childcare would rise as a result of having better qualified staff.

But Ms Tarrant says the Government needs to get the balance right.

"What we need to make sure, is that we have workers to provide this valuable service, we need to make sure that the training's available in a form for existing workers to take up and that there's good pay at the end of it to keep them in the escort when they're trained," she said.

"We also need to make sure that there's still affordability for parents."

Earlier, Australian Community Children Services spokeswoman Prue Warrilow said the higher level of care for children outweighs the cost.

"If you can imagine one adult holding a baby and bottle-feeding that baby, and having four other babies on the ground that they're responsible for that could be in some kind of distress, I think a parent would understand having a better child-staff ratio would have much better care and education outcomes for their child," she said.

Tags: family-and-children, child-care, government-and-politics, federal-government, unions, children, australia

Australia Votes 2010

76 needed to form government

The Negotiations

State of the Parties

76 seats required for victory

91.5% counted.
Updated Sat Sep 4 10:11AM
Party % Vote Swing Won Predict
Labor 38.0 -5.4 72
Coalition 43.7 +1.6 73
Greens 11.7 +3.9 1
Others 6.6 -0.1 4

Changing Seats

91.5% counted.
Last updated Sat Sep 4 10:11AM
Time Count % Electorate Held By Margin 2PP % Swing Predict
14:37 93.5 La Trobe L/NP 0.5 50.9 1.4% to ALP ALP GAIN
18:22 91.0 McEwen L/NP 0.0 55.2 5.2% to ALP ALP GAIN
10:36 89.0 Solomon ALP 0.2 51.9 2.0% to CLP CLP GAIN
18:52 83.1 Melbourne ALP 4.7 55.6 10.3% to GRN GRN GAIN
17:37 94.3 Denison ALP 15.3 51.2 16.5% from ALP IND GAIN
15:21 91.2 Bennelong ALP 1.4 53.5 4.9% to LIB LIB GAIN
13:07 92.8 Gilmore * ALP 0.4 55.3 5.7% to LIB LIB WIN
18:07 92.9 Hasluck ALP 0.8 50.6 1.4% to LIB LIB GAIN
16:21 92.0 Macarthur * ALP 0.5 53.0 3.5% to LIB LIB WIN
11:23 92.5 Macquarie ALP 0.3 51.2 1.5% to LIB LIB GAIN
18:54 90.3 Swan * ALP 0.3 52.6 2.8% to LIB LIB WIN
16:53 91.5 Bonner ALP 4.5 52.6 7.1% to LNP LNP GAIN
17:21 89.8 Brisbane ALP 4.6 51.0 5.6% to LNP LNP GAIN
11:36 92.7 Dawson ALP 2.6 52.4 5.0% to LNP LNP GAIN
12:51 93.7 Dickson * ALP 0.8 55.2 5.9% to LNP LNP WIN
14:36 91.1 Flynn ALP 2.2 53.5 5.7% to LNP LNP GAIN
15:21 91.3 Forde ALP 3.4 51.6 5.0% to LNP LNP GAIN
16:06 92.4 Herbert * ALP 0.0 52.1 2.1% to LNP LNP WIN
16:37 90.4 Leichhardt ALP 4.1 54.6 8.7% to LNP LNP GAIN
14:21 92.2 Longman ALP 1.9 52.0 3.9% to LNP LNP GAIN

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Election Live

76 needed to form government

91.5% counted.
Updated Sat Sep 4 10:11AM
Party % Vote Swing Won Predict
Labor 38.0 -5.4 72
Coalition 43.7 +1.6 73
Greens 11.7 +3.9 1
Others 6.6 -0.1 4

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