Today - Christmas Day - is a holiday but all permanent employees will get their full pay packet on pay day. Legislation ensures that they have the day off on full pay on publicly gazetted holidays and that is a normal accounting practice for those running a business. Casual employees are on a different basis. Many are rostered for work when demand for services is at it's peak and often they get the call at short notice, and when their employer decides not to open, they get no work and consequently - no pay.
It seems that a very different view prevails in many child care centres. They close on public holidays, but continue to levy their usual charge despite providing no service. The parents who are employed in industries that continue to work on public holidays have no option other than to take the day off themselves, or take their children to work with them - or find other services.
Many child care centres close their doors at noon on Christmas Eve and reopen on January 4, but continue to charge their usual rate of $86 a day on all public holidays within that time frame. Their reasoning is that they are required by legislation to grant their permanent employees a paid public holiday, hence this cost is being passed on to the public.
This seems to be a line of thinking that is way out of step with the world in which we live today. It seems to assume that the parents of the children who attend day care are all employed as permanent employees and will therefore be having that public holiday - and will not need the day care service because they will be enjoying the holiday with their children. That is drawing a very long bow to pass on the cost of an enforced holiday for their staff to the end customer.
It is also doubtful if that is legal and it needs immediate attention from Fair Trading and the statutory authorities that govern work practices. Child care is fast becoming an essential service and without it a substantial section of the workforce could not continue to be employed. It is a mix of the public and private sector and consequently the rules that apply vary widely at the whim of individual proprietors.
It is a fallacy that child care centres exclusively cater for the needs of women. In this age of divorce there are many men who have care of their children and both men and women work in a host of industries such as nursing, the police, the electrical industry and railways that require rostered work of a 24/7 basis. Unfortunately, child care seems to be an industry working in lockstep with the old traditional nine to five, five day a week time frame.
That is very comfortable from an organizational point of view, but where there is demand there is opportunity for the entrepreneur. There is also the expectation that the work time frame will continue to widen. It seems evident that from sheer necessity many children are exposed to child minding situations that are far from ideal, and in particular - older children are sometimes tasked with the care of younger siblings that is beyond their maturity level. Unless professional care is available, such situations will continue to pose danger.
It seems that the fragmented nature of the child care industry is one of it's weaknesses. This peculiar charging pattern for public holidays seems to have evolved and is totally inconsistent with other industries. The time has arrived for the whole question of need and supply to get a fresh appraisal and be fine tuned to the needs of the market place.
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