Creche and Kindergarten (C&K) branch centre employees across Queensland have had their say and overwhelmingly voted no to their employer’s plan for outdated working conditions.
The Independent Education Union – Queensland and Northern Territory (IEU-QNT) said teachers and assistants at over 140 C&K kindergartens rejected their employer’s plan at a ballot conducted late last week.
In a 2-to-1 vote, 381 employees (64.57%) voted “Do Not Approve” and 209 employees (35.42%) voted “Approve”.
The participation rate was 69.08% with 590 out of 854 employees voting in the ballot.
IEU-QNT Branch Secretary Terry Burke said C&K had insisted “employees should have their say” and walked away from negotiations taking their outdated agreement to ballot.
“They were told their position would be rejected by employees and it was,” he said.
“C&K employees have now made it very clear they strongly reject outdated working conditions,” Mr Burke said.
“C&K teachers and assistants have said no to outdated wages, no to outdated super, no to outdated parental and long service leave and no to outdated time for kindy directors to do their job.
“They know they deserve better than being left behind the rest of the early childhood education sector and they have voted accordingly.
“With a majority of staff having voted in the ballot and the majority of them voting no, the onus is clearly now on C&K to return to the negotiating table with a proposal that values and respects staff and students.
