Greed puts profit before children

Australia's biggest child care company is splurging $200,000 
on the Brisbane Bullets basketball franchise while rejecting pay 
increases for child care workers earning less than $12 an 
hour.

The facts came to light when ABC Learning Centres executive 
director, Michael Kemp, told a work value case in Melbourne his 
company would not reconsider its Bullets sponsorship in order to 
lift carers' pay.

The Liberal Party-linked ABC has expanded quickly under the 
Federal Government's policy of shifting funding for childcare 
from community to for-profit centres. ABC runs more than 300 
centres around Australia, paying youth carers as little $5.99 an 
hour.

Entry level adults get $11.90 an hour while fully qualified 
employees, backed by two-year child care diplomas, earn $14.14 
before tax.

ABC is opposing the work value case being run by the child care 
workers' union, the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous 
Workers' Union (LHMU), in Victoria and the ACT. The union is 
claiming $17.51 an hour for workers with diplomas and $13.38 for 
adults without tertiary qualifications.

"These people are being left behind while others in the industry 
are getting extremely rich", LHMU industrial officer, Sue 
Bellino, said.

"Unfortunately, we still have to fight an attitude that childcare 
is baby sitting rather than education during key developmental 
years."

Former Liberal Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Sallyann Atkinson, chairs 
the company's board while party heavyweights, Andrew Peacock and 
Jeff Kennett, also have close associations.

Its managing director is Eddie Groves, listed by Business Review 
Weekly as Australia's fourth-richest man with an estimated net 
personal fortune of $146 million. Groves is suing the childcare 
workers union for damages over comments made during the wage 
dispute.

Kemp confirmed in evidence last week that the company was on 
track to post a $20 million after tax profit this financial year.