2018-09-04
Australian Greens Education Spokesperson, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has backed fair pay for early childhood educators and the ‘Big Steps’ campaign. Early childhood educators will walk off the job tomorrow (5thSeptember).
Senator Faruqi said:
“The Greens strongly support early childcare educators across the country and their rights to fair pay. Early childhood education is incredibly important and it is well past time for the people who educate and care for our young people to have decent pay and conditions.
“There is an obvious problem with our early childhood education sector when workers earn less than half the national average wage and parent’s out of pocket expenses are up 48% in just six years.
“Workers shouldn’t have to take action year in and year out for fair pay, but if the Government thinks this issue is going away they are sorely mistaken. This is the fourth walk off in eighteen months and the Greens will be standing shoulder to shoulder with educators until they are paid fairly.
“It’s no coincidence that nearly 100% of childhood education workers are women and that they are not being paid fairly. This is just another example of unequal pay for women.
“I’ll be joining childcare educators tomorrow at the rally in Martin Place to show my support for workers" she concluded.