Thousands of childcare and early learning workers are set to see their wages rise thanks to a new pay agreement. Around 33,000 educators will in three weeks time see the Employment Regulation Orders for the Early Years Services Sector kick in and increase minimum hourly pay rates for various sector roles. On June 24 it is estimated that 53% of workers in the sector will benefit from the wages rise – the other 47% are paid above the minimum wage for their jobs.
However, Elaine Dunne, National Chairperson of the Federation of Early Childhood Providers (FECP) said Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman is not ‘addressing the elephant in the room’ of how inadequately the government are dealing with ‘services closing down and how many employees are still on old pay freezes. ‘Any business needs to know what money they have in the bank for the year and our services don’t. We’re in limbo for so long now.
This whole issue is gone beyond a joke. Minister O’Gorman and his civil servants just don’t listen to us.’ The hourly minimum rate of pay will increase from €13 to €13.
65 for early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners, while lead educators and school-age childcare coordinators will benefit from a 70c per rise from €14 to €14.70 an hour. Graduate Centre Managers’ minimum rates will rise from €17.
25 to €18.11 an hour. Unions and employer groups, who are members of a Joint Labour Committee (JLC), held a series of meetings to discuss .
