How we got where we are

Place two early childhood teachers in Victoria.

They may be only a couple of kilometres from one another.

One is employed by a community kindergarten. One is employed by a private long day care provider that is providing a Victorian-funded kindergarten program.

Both are early childhood teachers. They may have completed the same tertiary qualification, they may be teaching children of the same age and they may have the same professional responsibility to promote the learning and development of the children they teach. They may both be providing a funded kindergarten program in accordance with government guidelines and the National Quality Framework.

However, these teachers may be working under different pay scales, different planning time provisions, leave provisions and other terms and conditions of employment.

This doesn’t mean that one is providing a better educational service than the other, or that one deserves more recognition than the other. It is largely due to the differing industrial histories that surround each part of the profession.

Language is important here. Long day care is an official term for a type of service that is used in Australian legislation, funding and industrial instruments. I will use this terminology in this article. However, what occurs in these services goes far beyond “care”. Early childhood teachers and educators are providing education to children throughout the day in long day care, along with many other aspects of their role.

To explain why there is a difference, we need to look at some history.

It may seem that teachers working for private long day care providers were put on lower terms and conditions of employment than teachers working in community kindergartens. This isn’t the full story.

University-qualified early childhood teachers working in long day care will generally fall under the Educational Services (Teachers) Award unless there is an enterprise agreement or other industrial instrument that applies to them. Many other early childhood educators working in long day care are covered by the Children’s Services Award unless an enterprise agreement or other industrial instrument applies. These awards set minimum wages and conditions of employment.

Many employees working in Victorian community kindergartens exceeded these minimum conditions through enterprise agreements such as the Victorian Early Childhood Teachers and Educators Agreement, or VECTEA.

To understand how we got to a point where teachers doing almost identical educational work can be on different terms and conditions of employment, we need to go back over 100 years.

The Free Kindergarten movement in Victoria developed in the early 1900s. A free kindergarten was established in Burnley in September 1906. By 1908 there were four free kindergartens operating when the Free Kindergarten Union of Victoria was established. The Union wanted to create standards for the movement and believed that kindergarten should be run by trained kindergarten teachers. In 1907 Emmeline Pye established Victoria’s first state-funded kindergarten in Brunswick.

What made the kindergarten system unusual was that local councils and volunteer committees of parents were able to become providers of kindergarten. As more administration was required, some providers started to manage multiple kindergartens. This was supported by the Victorian Government with the introduction of Kindergarten Cluster Management in 2003.

This presented an industrial problem. You could have a kindergarten that was a very small workplace and run by a committee that was elected each year by the current parent population.

In 2006 when approving the Early Childhood Teachers Multi-Employer Certified Agreement 2005, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission recorded that the majority of preschools were small workplaces, that they were mostly run by voluntary committees elected each year by a new parent population, and that there was a critical shortage of qualified early childhood teachers in Victoria. It recorded that the agreement’s higher remuneration would assist with retaining experienced teachers and attracting new teachers.

Instead of all the small employers of kindergarten having to bargain on their own, many employers could come together and bargain under one industrial instrument. Funding from the Victorian Government also became intertwined with this process as more agreements were put in place.

Fair Work Australia authorised a group of employers to bargain for early childhood teachers and assistants who worked in Victorian community-managed kindergartens in November 2009. The Victorian Department of Education facilitated a Heads of Agreement that was signed on 3 May 2009. This involved Kindergarten Parents Victoria, the Municipal Association of Victoria, the Australian Education Union and the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union. The Victorian Early Childhood Teachers and Assistants Agreement 2009 came into effect on 26 January 2010.

VECTAA 2009 was then superseded by the Victorian Early Childhood Teachers and Educators Agreement 2016, which came into effect on 29 June 2016. VECTEA 2020 was approved by the Fair Work Commission in July 2021 and, at agreement level, applied to 383 employers in the early childhood sector.

VECTEA 2020 covers early childhood teachers and educators employed in community-managed, not-for-profit kindergartens. The Victorian Government has stated that VECTEA and the Early Education Employees Agreement are important to attract and retain staff, and that it provides higher kindergarten funding to services that operate under these agreements or an approved equivalent.

Long day care took a different path.

The Commonwealth provided some assistance to what was known at the time as childcare. This included the Lady Gowrie centres in 1940 and assistance to some mothers who were working during World War II. However, the Commonwealth didn’t step in with significant funding until the Child Care Act 1972. Funding was provided to non-profit organisations that provided centre-based long day care to children of working and sick parents through capital, recurrent and other grants.

There was a clear link to parents working. The impetus for the Child Care Act 1972 came largely from the Commonwealth department that looked after the needs of working women and industry’s demand for a stable workforce.

Over the next 20 years the funding of long day care changed dramatically.

In 1990 the Commonwealth announced that Child Care Assistance would be extended to families using for-profit services, with the extension taking effect in January 1991. By 1991 the Commonwealth had significantly shifted the emphasis of its funding policy from assisting supply to assisting demand. Families could now access government assistance for both private and community provision of long day care. A Senate inquiry referred to 1991 as the start of the childcare “market”.

Private provision boomed. The Productivity Commission found that after the Commonwealth made funding available to private providers in 1991, the number of long day care places provided by private providers increased by almost 350% by 2004. During this time places in community-managed centres increased by 65%.

You can still see the effects of this history today. The Victorian Government’s 2025 Rapid Child Safety Review states that our current system of early childhood education and care has grown from a separation of the states and territories providing “education” and the Commonwealth providing funding for “care” to assist with workforce participation. It argues that this no longer reflects children’s experience, with many children attending their funded kindergarten program in long day care.

Industrial relations developed differently across these areas of early childhood education and care.

Community kindergarten developed a system that allowed hundreds of employers to come together and bargain, with the help of sector bodies and the Victorian Government as the funder of these services.

Long day care grew to include many small businesses, large corporate providers and not-for-profit organisations. These services usually operate for longer hours and more weeks of the year than standalone kindergartens. Their income can also include parent fees and the Commonwealth Child Care Subsidy, along with Victorian kindergarten funding for those providing a funded kindergarten program.

Enterprise bargaining had a relatively low uptake across the early childhood education and care sector.

When the Fair Work Commission looked at supported bargaining for long day care in 2023, it found that rates of pay at or near award rates were prevalent in the ECEC sector and that low rates of pay prevailed. Evidence before the Commission showed that 57.8% of employees in the ECEC sector received pay derived from an applicable award. Another 20.9% received pay that was between 0.01 and 10% above the award rate. This was across the whole ECEC sector, not just long day care employees.

The Commission also looked at why there was a low uptake of enterprise bargaining. It cited the high number of small long day care providers, limited management capability and resources to bargain, and funding and pricing issues. It also recorded that over 90% of the ECEC workforce was female.

We saw the effects of this history many years ago.

The Australian Education Union made a submission to the Productivity Commission in 2011 comparing the Victorian kindergarten enterprise agreements that were in place at the time with the Educational Services (Teachers) Award. It stated that a teacher with a four-year qualification would receive a starting salary of $55,459 under the agreements, compared with $40,201 under the award. It compared a maximum salary of $81,806 under the agreements that would commence in May 2012 with an award rate of $53,493. It also compared 12.5 hours of preparation and planning time per week under the agreements with two hours under the award, and 11.4 weeks of annual leave with four weeks. These were figures supplied to the Productivity Commission by the AEU.

These are terms and conditions of employment. They should not be used to compare how hard teachers are working or the quality of their work.

Private long day care providers don’t have to offer only award conditions to their employees either.

They can pay above award rates and employees can be covered by enterprise agreements. The Victorian Government currently allows long day care services that employ eligible teachers under VECTEA, the Early Education Employees Agreement or an approved equivalent to receive the Early Childhood Teacher Supplement.

So if an employee is on higher pay and conditions, that will depend on the industrial arrangements that apply to them, including any enterprise agreement or additional contractual terms. It does not follow from providing a kindergarten program alone.

Victoria allows funded kindergarten to be provided in both standalone sessional services and long day care. The Victorian Government states that funded kindergarten programs are provided by qualified early childhood teachers. They follow the same government guidelines and are subject to the National Quality Framework.

To the child and family it is a kindergarten program. For the teacher, employment conditions depend on the industrial arrangements that apply. This can depend on a number of factors including who the employer is, the work and classification of the employee and whether there is an enterprise agreement or other registered instrument that applies.

An employment contract can also provide extra pay and conditions to an employee. However, if an award or enterprise agreement applies to the employee, the contract sits alongside it and can’t take away from the employee’s minimum entitlements under the National Employment Standards or their applicable award or enterprise agreement.

Changes are starting to happen in long day care.

On 10 December 2024 the Fair Work Commission approved the Early Childhood Education and Care Multi-Employer Enterprise Agreement 2024–2026. This agreement can cover employees whose work would otherwise fall under the Children’s Services Award or the Educational Services (Teachers) Award who work in long day care. It can also cover some other employees. Standalone preschools and kindergartens are not covered under this agreement.

More employers have been added to this agreement since it was approved. On 31 August 2026 the United Workers’ Union applied for a replacement supported bargaining authorisation for 542 employers that are currently covered by this agreement. If this is granted it will allow the parties to bargain for a replacement agreement. The current agreement has a nominal expiry date of 30 November 2026.

The award system is also changing. However, these particular changes apply to employees covered by the Children’s Services Award rather than university-qualified early childhood teachers covered by the Educational Services (Teachers) Award. In December 2025 the Fair Work Commission found that the work performed by Children’s Services Employees had historically been undervalued because of assumptions based on gender. New classifications and the first increase to minimum rates came into effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 March 2026. Further increases are being staged through to 2029. These changes affect employees who fall under the Children’s Services Award. They do not increase the rates under the Educational Services (Teachers) Award that apply to university-qualified early childhood teachers.

Victoria has also been bargaining for a replacement VECTEA.

VECTEA 2020 had a nominal expiry date of 30 September 2024. However, an enterprise agreement does not expire when it reaches its nominal expiry date. It will continue until it is replaced or terminated.

On 27 August 2026 it was reported to Parliament that employees had voted to endorse the proposed replacement VECTEA and EEEA agreements, with an overall yes vote of approximately 98% for VECTEA providers and 99% for EEEA providers. The Minister stated that the agreements would then progress to the Fair Work Commission for further approvals. The VECTEA 2026 application was subsequently submitted to the Fair Work Commission in September 2026.

So, when looking at why a teacher working in a private long day care service may be on different terms and conditions from a teacher working in a community kindergarten, you can’t just look at their job description.

Teachers and educators who work in community kindergartens work within industrial arrangements shaped by the history of Victorian kindergartens, where many small employers were able to bargain together and receive funding from the Victorian Government to support conditions above the national award.

Teachers and educators who work in long day care work within industrial arrangements shaped by a different history, influenced by Commonwealth funding designed partly to support parental workforce participation, the shift towards demand-side funding and the growth of private providers after 1991. This contributed to different industrial conditions developing.

Educationally, these two areas of the sector have come much closer together.

Their industrial arrangements have not converged to the same extent.

That history allows us to understand why teachers can have the same qualifications, teach children of the same age and provide the same publicly funded educational service, but be on different pay and conditions of employment.

Whether you work in a community kindergarten, a not-for-profit service or a private long day care service, you are an early childhood teacher or educator responsible for children during some of the most important years of their lives. We should all be striving to ensure that those doing this work are recognised for their skills and for the importance of their educational work.