
Issue No 33		01 October 1999

News

Child Carers Stretched to the Limit

More than 60 per cent of child care workers do up to five hours of unpaid overtime every week. And two-thirds of workers say they are 'very stressed'.

These are the official results of a nationwide LHMU survey of child care work habits. The survey highlights problems of job insecurity and unpaid overtime.

Many child care workers complained that government funding cuts have forced them to do work-related shopping, programming, parent meetings and rostering outside their paid hours of work.

The majority of the surveyed child care workers also said that their workloads had increased over the past year. Fifty eight per cent say they are so overworked that they could not provide the right level of care.

Funding cuts to blame

Forty per cent indicated that they are now less satisfied with work than they were 12 months ago.

LHMU Assistant Secretary Cheryl Hyde says that employers had no legal right to force child care workers to do unpaid overtime. Hyde says the Howard Government's big funding cuts had thrown the industry into crisis.

'More than 100 centres have been forced to close. Many other centres have cut staff numbers in order to cope with the cuts,' she says.

Many parents have also withdrawn their children from centres after the fees went up to compensate for the cuts.

Union action plan

A recent national meeting of child care delegates and officials decided on an action plan for child care. The plan includes:

- leaflets to make child care workers aware of their rights, eg you don't have to work unpaid overtime

- a plan for the industry, including a better funding model

- recruiting more child care workers to make the Union stronger.

'Less staff, more stress'

Every week child care worker Kim Meeks works two hours of unpaid overtime.

'I just don't have time to do the weekly programming in my normal work hours so I do it at home on the weekend instead,' Kim says.

Kim is group leader at a community- based centre in Cairns. She says that the Howard Government cuts mean that her centre now has to do the same work with less staff.

'We are all more stressed now and not such a happy workplace any longer. But I still love working with children,' Kim said.

Because of the funding cuts, Kim's centre has also had to cut back on toys and equipment.

   Visit the LHMU

  View entire issue - print all of the articles!

  Issue 33 contents

Interview: The Boys
Labor Party heavyweights Eric Roozendaal and Damian O'Connor will lock horns this weekend. They fire their first shots.

Economics: Reasons to Be Cheerful
Can we change the way we look at the economy to better reflect community happiness and well-being?

Unions: Breaking the Wave
ACTU President's submission to the Senate Inquiry into the Workplace Relations Act.

International: The Wisdom of Solomon
A disturbing case from the Pacific where corporate lawyers are playing a deadly game.

History: Groundhog Day
Ghosts of Conferences past: some strangely familiar debates and decisions from previous state ALP conferences

Legal: Bad, Bad Things
Some of Australia's leading industrial lawyers argue that the Workplace Relations Act breaches basic international obligations.

Review: Tailing Out
As the BHP steelworks close in Newcastle a special book chronicles the stories of working live that have just become history.

Satire: Police Cut-Backs Lead To Drop In Organised Crime
An audit of the NSW Police has revealed that they have been seriously cutting back their operating budgets to ensure that they will be able to afford the increased security costs of the Olympics.

Work/Time/Life: It's Official: Aussies Work Harder
Australians continue to work long hours in contrast to a world-wide trend in industrialised countries that has seen hours at work remaining steady or declining in recent years.

» Station Cuts Derailed - But More Hits for the Scull

» Social Audit Backed by Community Groups

» Unions Take Common Priorities to State Conference

» Simmering Discontent Hits Boiling Point

» Public Sector Job Numbers Rubbery

» Timor Protest to be Dumped in Reith Wave

» Big Lunch Break for Stress-Free Day

» Arch Apologises for Youth Wage Debacle

» Clean Air Policy Up In Smoke

» Child Carers Stretched to the Limit

» Building Workers Won�t Settle for Half Pay

» Life, Art and Politics