Early childhood

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Early childhood

The AEU has almost 3000 members in the early childhood sector, and is the loudest voice and strongest arm for early childhood teachers and educators.

In 2016 we secured two major enterprise agreements for early childhood education – VECTEA 2016 for the community sector, and EEEA 2016 for the local government sector.

Some highlights of these agreements include:

• a 3% annual wage rise
• workload clauses to help deliver workload relief
• 15 days of leave for co-educators
• pay parity with school teachers for the top tier of EC teachers (an additional 13%)
• pay parity with school teachers for the bottom tier of EC teachers (an additional 8%).

These two agreements will now set the benchmark for the rest of the early childhood sector. The AEU is in the process of negotiating a new VECTEA and EEEA in which we look to achieve better wages and conditions for our members and the sector.

Three-year-old kinder rollout

The Victorian Labor government has announced $5 billion of funding over the next 10 years so that every child in the state will have access to two years of kindergarten. Victoria will be the first state or territory in Australia to introduce a subsidised kindergarten program for all three-year-olds. This very welcome funding will mean changes for our members at centres across the state. The Department of Education and Training has provided resources and information about the rollout, including:

• information for sector workers
• a communication toolkit for 2020-21 rollout areas
• information for parents
• Victorian Government 3YO kindergaren information
• 3YO Kinder TV Commercial (30sec with subtitles)
• 3YO Kinder Sketch Video
• 3YO Kinder Infographic Social Benefits 1 of 2
• 3YO Kinder Infographic Social Benefits 2 of 2
• 3YO Kinder Infographic Social Benefits 2 Standalone
• 3YO Kinder Campaign Logo
• 3YO Kinder Infographic First Day of Kindergarten (Facebook and Instagram)
• 3YO Kinder Infographic First Day of Kindergarten (Twitter)
• 3YO Kinder Infographic Static Brand (Facebook)
• 3YO Kinder Infographic Static Workforce (Facebook)
• 3YO Kinder Infographic Snapshot

The AEU: the union for you

The AEU is the union for early childhood teachers, educators, preschool field officers (PSFOs), and advisors.

We understand your work and the challenges (and rewards!) of early childhood.

When the going gets tough, we’ll support you – whether that’s providing 1-on-1 advice about anything from your contract to your leave entitlements, running excellent PD, or achieving strong enterprise agreements for the workforce as a whole.

When it comes to enterprise bargaining, there is strength in numbers – and the more early childhood teachers and educators join the AEU, the more power we have at the bargaining table.

We've sucessfully campaigned for the Victorian government to introduce 15 hours of preschool education for all three-year-old children - the single biggest investment in preschool we have seen in Victoria.

The AEU has almost 50,000 members around Victoria. Join us today, and connect with a community of passionate educators.