Qld employers attacking union-won pay and conditions
Members in Queensland should remain vigilant after multiple early childhood education employers attempted to cut the pay and key working conditions and protections of hard-working employees.
Our union has been made aware of instances in which employers have tried – and in some cases succeeded – to freeze wages, cut redundancy provisions and exclude new administrative staff from collective agreements altogether.
IEU-QNT Organiser Nicole Lakidis said this was the latest in a series of kindergarten employers trying to quietly roll back key working conditions and deliver a pay cut.
“It means the provisions revert to the award and because community kindergartens are usually a business of less than 15 employees, they are not obligated to provide a redundancy severance package,” Nicole said.
“Once a provision is removed, it is extremely hard to win back.
“It is symptomatic of how broken our bargaining system is: employees in critical sectors such as early childhood education should be able to bargain collectively as a sector, like their school-based colleagues.
“Members should contact our union immediately if their employer has proposed a new agreement so that we can double check critical working rights and conditions have not been removed.”