Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Casuarina Childcare Centre Director Alice Branco says staff are burnout, overworked and underpaid and she’s calling for reforms to the sector

Transcript

Casuarina Childcare Centre Director Alice Branco says staff are burnout, overworked and underpaid and she’s calling for reforms to the sector · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining me on the line right now is Alice Branco,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: who is indeed the director of the Casuarina Childcare Center.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Alice.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: Good morning Kate and listeners.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for your time this morning. Alice.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously I'm assuming Casuarina Childcare Center is one of the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: centers that's impacted today.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we are closing off today, but many other centers
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: will do the same, and we still have people resisting
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: for today.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Right, And so Alice, we heard earlier that a
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: number of childcare workers are going to be going on strike.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: How many of your crew are going to be striking?
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  Speaker 3: All our crew from my center will be striking, Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: but many other centers are joining us in this afternoon
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  Speaker 3: at three o'clock, So it's going to be massive.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: And so the TSAVO at three clock is it? Are there?
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  Speaker 1: We're exactly going to be meeting, and what is the
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  Speaker 1: message going to be for the federal government?
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  Speaker 3: Right? The message first, we're going to be joining here
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  Speaker 3: in our in the area at brashaw Terrace in the
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  Speaker 3: center's car park. But the message is that early childhood
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  Speaker 3: sector is in crisis and we need real reform for
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: the sector.
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  Speaker 1: For good.
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  Speaker 3: At the moment, we have educators leaving the sector in
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  Speaker 3: droves due to burnout, overloaded, underpay, undervalue. And we and
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  Speaker 3: the children are one of the most important members of
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  Speaker 3: our community. They need to have quality care. They need
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  Speaker 3: to have qualified staff taking care of their education while
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  Speaker 3: their parents are working. And there are three messages that
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  Speaker 3: we are sending to the Albanese government. First, tell us
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  Speaker 3: why we should stay in the sector, because we, like
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  Speaker 3: I said before, we underpay, undervalue. We feel that there
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  Speaker 3: is no respect for our profession at the moment, and
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  Speaker 3: we deserve that respect for the work that we do.
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  Speaker 3: So we need to be value because ninety five percent
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  Speaker 3: of the human brain develops in the first five years
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  Speaker 3: of their lives, and this is what we are doing
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  Speaker 3: in our centers, including not only brand development, but the
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: motor skill, creativity, communications, social emotional wellbeing, et cetera. And
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  Speaker 3: so we need to be recognized not only for the
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  Speaker 3: job we do, but for the qualifications that we have.
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  Speaker 3: And we are like you know, we earn a third
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  Speaker 3: less than our counterpartners in the education, So we need
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  Speaker 3: to be The government need to have us in the system.
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  Speaker 3: And I'll tell you what which is not very well spoken.
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  Speaker 3: Yet and these need to be dissimilated throughout the country.
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  Speaker 3: Is that put children before profits. Stop profiting of our children.
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  Speaker 3: The corporation, the offshore corporations are taking over this area
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  Speaker 3: because there's billions of money involved in that. So they're
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  Speaker 3: profiting from our parents, from our staff, because our staff
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  Speaker 3: are pages like twenty four dollars an hour and misery wages.
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  Speaker 3: Our parents pay huge fees to have their kids that
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  Speaker 3: at the center so they can go to work and
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  Speaker 3: participate in this economy, as well as the all the
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  Speaker 3: subsidies that they get from the government. Let's say the
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: shock subsidy goes off shore, it's not invested in the
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  Speaker 3: health and education of our children. Here, he goes off
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  Speaker 3: sure to fun, lovish life stuff of rich people. And
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  Speaker 3: this has to stop. That's why many centers are closing down.
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  Speaker 3: Rooms are closing down. Parents can't go back to work,
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  Speaker 3: and the government need to start somewhere. We need to
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  Speaker 3: stop with it.
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  Speaker 2: Well and look at the community.
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  Speaker 3: As you know, and community deserves good care for their children.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: They both certainly do.
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  Speaker 1: And look, my children are no longer in childcare, they're
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: obviously past that age. But I think any parent or
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: any care give that's had a child in child care
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  Speaker 1: knows just how important your jobs are.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Alice.
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  Speaker 1: How tough has it been over the last couple of years,
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  Speaker 1: and how tough is it right now to get people
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  Speaker 1: to fill those jobs.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, I've been in the sector for three decades and
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  Speaker 3: I've been involved in the Big Step campaign as well
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  Speaker 3: as now the Tribal fab campaign. I've been involved for
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  Speaker 3: more than a decade in this comp and things are
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  Speaker 3: getting worse because qualified staff are living in draws. We
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  Speaker 3: don't want anyone from the streets to walk in and
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  Speaker 3: care for our kids education. We want kids to have
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  Speaker 3: good nutrition at the centers that they can grow up healthy.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 3: You know so many issues that we are facing at
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  Speaker 3: the moment, and all to do with wages. Early educators,
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  Speaker 3: early child de educators prefer to go and work in
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  Speaker 3: orders or course they just pay more money to feed
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  Speaker 3: their families than a in an early child education setting.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and this is the thing we can't afford to
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  Speaker 1: lose these workers that do a phenomenal job in terms
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  Speaker 1: of caring and educating our children. So, Alice, the steps
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  Speaker 1: are this afternoon. Obviously, you've got that meeting or that,
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  Speaker 1: you know, that protest that is going to be happening.
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  Speaker 2: Any idea how many people are you going to.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: Get there at the moment, I haven't haven't got all
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  Speaker 3: the numbers yet, but there will be a big crowd
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  Speaker 3: because as I said, you know, some people that wanted
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: to come in, they've been threatened that they will lose
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  Speaker 3: their jobs or if they take a sick leave, they
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  Speaker 3: might not even get paid. So those many others like that,
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  Speaker 3: they have called me and say they will be with
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  Speaker 3: us in spirit. But I know of many centers that
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  Speaker 3: are coming and join us, and many others. So we'll
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  Speaker 3: see what happens. And we have community members and parents
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  Speaker 3: joining us.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know, and I think that there will
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  Speaker 1: be a lot of people in the community. They do
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  Speaker 1: feel as though they are paying awfully high fees obviously
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  Speaker 1: to send their kids to childcare, and they would like
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  Speaker 1: to see more of those fees going to the people
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  Speaker 1: that are caring for the.
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  Speaker 3: Kids, and not only there. You know, like the money
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  Speaker 3: should stay here in Australia. We have to stop with
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  Speaker 3: all those offshore corporations coming in and sucking the money. Sorry,
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  Speaker 3: I am using that word from our parents, from our
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  Speaker 3: stuff from our children to subsidize daily reach lifestyle overseas. No,
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  Speaker 3: the money should stay here for the people in Australia,
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  Speaker 3: for our communities, for the health and education of our children,
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  Speaker 3: to pay stuff in locators to stay in the sector
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  Speaker 3: so our children can grow to become good leaders in
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  Speaker 3: our community.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Well, Alice, thank you very much for your time today.
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  Speaker 1: I'll be really interested to hear how it all goes.
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  Speaker 2: But I really appreciate you having a chat with us
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  Speaker 2: this morning.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: Thank you very much for having me. And I would
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  Speaker 3: like to do an appeal please the crashes that we
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  Speaker 3: are facing. It's not only us educated responsibility. We asking parents,
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  Speaker 3: we asking communities to support us for the next generations
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: that are coming from the parents that were going to
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  Speaker 3: be the next parents of the future, because we have
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  Speaker 3: to care about all of this.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Alice, thank you for your time this morning.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: I really appreciate it.
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: You're most all come to thank you for having me.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: Thank you