Childcare employers can afford a pay rise for staff, union claims

One of the main unions representing childcare workers has claimed the sector can afford an extra €2 an hour across the board for all employees.

Talks on a new pay deal will resume at the Joint Labour Committee on Tuesday after being adjourned last week without any breakthrough.

The Employment Regulation Orders for early years services, which came into being in September, guarantees a minimum pay rate of €13 an hour.

Siptu is arguing that current pay grades in the sector are not enough to stop the haemorrhaging of staff with 37 per cent leaving after a year.

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A parliamentary question from Sinn Féin childcare spokeswoman Kathleen Funchion last week revealed that the cost of moving all employees on €13 an hour to €15 an hour would be €51 million a year. The estimated cost to employers of raising all the pay grades in the sector by €2 an hour would be €92 million.

Siptu’s head of strategic organising and campaigns, Darragh O’Connor, has warned that 70 per cent of staff intended to leave the sector unless a new pay deal could be arranged.

He suggested there was plenty of money in the system to increase pay without having to raise fees for hard-pressed parents as the Government gave the sector an additional €207 million last year.

Both Labour and the Social Democrats have asked Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to clarify what he meant when he suggested that Budget 2024 would not cut the cost of childcare by 50 per cent.

Last year, Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman said he wanted to see a 50 per cent average reduction in the cost of childcare over Budget 2023 and this year’s Budget 2024.

Mr Varadkar said the Government had effectively cut the cost of childcare by 25 per cent in the last budget, but he cast doubt on being able to cut it by the same amount in the next budget.

Labour leader Ivana Bacik said the Taoiseach should concentrate on cutting the costs of childcare for parents “not floating meaningless tax cuts. The childcare system is in crisis. The Labour Party want to introduce a publicly funded, universal and affordable childcare scheme which would be achieved after the budget.”

Social Democrats childcare spokeswoman Jennifer Whitmore said the comments by the Taoiseach seemed to be preparing “the ground for a U-turn on this commitment – and leave parents in the invidious position of paying a second mortgage every month when it comes to childcare costs”.

“Enormous childcare costs are not just putting immense pressure on household budgets, they are also one of the primary barriers to women returning to work. The Government must not abandon these parents – and their commitments to tackling these huge costs.”