Welcome ECE Relief Teacher Pay Parity Change Will Help Centres’ Bottom Lines

The Early Childhood Council says removing Pay Parity rates for relief teachers will help centres balance the books and bring teachers back to permanent roles.

“We’ve called for this for some time, and are grateful to the government for listening and acting swiftly. It’s a real win for ECC members and all centres,” said ECC CEO Simon Laube.

“As we said in July, there was widespread support for this throughout the childcare sector - this will help reduce costs for centres and spell the end to the unnecessarily burgeoning secondary market for relievers. Solving the ECE teacher shortage will take a number of different steps, and today’s is a significant one.”

Many teachers have left permanent roles to become relievers, where they can potentially earn more, while some relief agencies have opportunistically increased their rates due to high demand.

This change should help bring down centres’ reliever bills, which have significantly increased recently and added to financial pressures, as well as encourage teachers back to permanent roles.

“Removing the fiddly requirement to document attempts to engage a relief teacher before claiming discretionary hours is also a welcome, common sense step.”

“It’s an encouraging sign for the upcoming ECE Regulation Review to see no-brainer solutions to problems being put in place quickly. If it helps children, teachers and centres, we should do it fast. Simple,” said Simon Laube.

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