Early Childhood Teachers campaign updates

Start Strong Pay Fair: Community preschools need fair funding

NSW community preschools are in crisis. Poor pay and conditions have meant that community preschools have struggled to attract new staff to their services and are losing staff to other sectors. We call on the NSW Government to fund community preschools fairly. Find out more.

Long Day Care and OSHC Workers: Register NOW for a 15% pay rise

Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) workers in Long Day Care (LDC) centres and Outside of School Hours Care (OSHC) have won a 15% fully funded pay increase!

The IEU, along with the AEU and UWU, has been fighting for fair wages through a supported bargaining process. This historic win was made possible by a joint union application, which brought together unions, employer groups, and the federal government to improve pay and conditions for ECEC workers.

Many services have already signed on to this historic deal. But many others are still eligible to join!

Learn more about the deal, and register your service for the pay rise here.

Child Safety in the ECEC Sector

The union is shocked and distressed by revelations of abuse and mistreatment of young children in the early childhood education and care sector.

The IEU is advocating for long-term solutions to this problem, with a focus on building a strong, highly qualified workforce. While changes such as increasing CCTV surveillance and banning personal mobile phones have a role to play, we believe that improvements to the sector start with better wages and conditions for all staff, as well as an increased focus on qualifications and training.

Read more about our work on child safety here.

Advocacy

ACECQA National Workforce Strategy

The IEUA is part of the ACECQA National Workforce Strategy Stakeholder Reference Group, which gave feedback on the Review of National Quality Framework Staffing and Qualifications Regulations. We were united in the opinion that teacher ratios and qualification requirements should not be reduced.

New South Wales Education Standards Authority (NESA)

The IEU is a representative on the New South Wales Education Standards Authority Early Childhood Reference Group. Responsibilities include attending meetings and consulting on reforms to Teacher Accreditation, including the introduction of the new NSW Teacher Accreditation Manual in August 2023 and the transition process for early childhood teachers who are seeking to achieve Proficient Teacher Accreditation.

Goodstart Joint Consultative Committee

The IEU represents our early childhood teachers on the Goodstart Joint Consultative Committee. Meetings are held four times a year. Discussions in 2023 include the ongoing shortage of staff in services, and the impact on rostering and non-contact time.

Thrive By Five

As members of the Educator Action Group, the Independent Education Union was part of the consultation and development of the Thrive by Five Workforce Action Plan.

Key demands: 

Fund an immediate pay rise for early childhood educators and teachers, comparable to the salary and conditions of school education sectors.
Amend the Fair Work Act to allow for effective equal pay cases and sector-level bargains to better reflect the professional value of the work performed by early childhood educators and teachers.
Put the National Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce Strategy on the Jobs Summit agenda.
Establish a process for sector collaboration around longer-term early childhood education and care workforce reform to consider tertiary education of educators and teachers, developing mechanisms for better addressing First Nations and culturally diverse needs in the sector, more support for staff retention and attraction including in under-represented cohorts and prioritising early childhood education and care jobs in local skills and employment planning.