For many families loss of maternal income following the birth of a child is not an option. These families need access to high quality childcare staffed by professional and properly compensated workers.
Quality of childcare is affected by a number of factors including:
- Staff/child ratios which vary under different State based
regulations,
- Staff turnover (currently estimated at around 30% pa), and
- Qualifications and professional development opportunities.
Childcare unions are developing work value and pay equity claims on behalf of childcare workers. New classifications incorporating a genuine career structure will appropriate funding to avoid costs being passed to parents.
Increased childcare subsidies will be needed to make quality services, staffed by properly qualified and paid staff, affordable to working families.
More Information
- ACTU News: Childcare, Carer's Leave
Needed For Family Friendly Workplaces - a national paid maternity leave
scheme should be the centrepiece of a whole package of reforms to make
Australian workplaces more family friendly, the ACTU said today. (17 July
2002)
- ACTU Speeches: Women and Work, In
this speech ACTU President Sharan Burrow talks about many issues affecting women
and families, including the importance of increased childcare subsidies in
ensuring that affordable and quality services are available. (18 July 2002)
- ACTU Policies: 1995
Congress - Child Care Policy - outlined here is the ACTU’s child care
policy; part of its social justice policy document.