Petition: G8 Teachers and Educators deserve paid parental leave!

Did you know that G8 does not offer employer-paid parental leave for the teachers who educate and care for your children?

Unlike their colleagues employed by KU Children’s Services, SDN Children’s Services, Uniting Early Learning, Goodstart, local councils and schools, G8 teachers and educators are only entitled to the Federal Government Paid Parental Leave Scheme.  

91% of the ECEC workforce are women whose primary goal is to support families with young children. It’s time for G8 to commit to supporting their employees with families of their own.

Qualified teachers are leaving ECEC to find jobs in schools with better pay and conditions, including employer-paid parental leave. If this continues, the quality of early learning for children will suffer as we lose dedicated, highly skilled teachers.

Teachers, educators and young children deserve better.

G8 Education is one of the largest ASX-listed companies that doesn’t offer employer-funded paid parental leave for their employees. G8 must step up and show they value the essential work that early childhood teachers and educators perform.

G8’s current gender pay gap is 20.1% (according to WGEA’s latest data). By not offering employer-funded paid parental leave, G8 Education is helping to grow the gender pay gap. It is perpetuating the ‘motherhood penalty‘ which sees the average 25-year-old woman make $2 million less in lifetime earnings than the average 25-year-old man who also becomes a parent.  

G8 can and must do better! We insist that G8 introduce employer-paid parental leave for ECEC employees!

Here’s what you can do:

1. Join us! If any of the teachers at your centre are not yet members of the IEU, encourage them to join the fight for employer-paid parental leave.
2. Sign and share the online petition! Show G8 they cannot continue to ignore teachers and educators with young families. Sign our online petition, or physical copies are available below.
3. Download and print out the paper petition (below). Ask parents, colleagues, and community members to stand with us and sign our petition. Return your signed petitions to the IEU: ecec@ieu.asn.au

This petition supports Sustainable Investment Exchange’s campaign to pressure G8 to fund paid parental leave for staff. Learn more about the activist shareholder’s campaign here.

If you are an early childhood teacher and an IEU member, check out our Facebook group.

Read our Media Release ‘IEU calls on one of Australia’s largest childcare providers to fund staff paid parental leave‘