Childcare educators walk off job in pay dispute
EDUCATORS from four Geelong childcare centres will walk off the job from lunchtime today as part of a longrunning wage dispute.
Union United Voice said it was the fourth walk-off in 18 months, and would be Austra- lia’s biggest early education protest.
The last walk-off, held in March, was the first time Geelong educators walked off the job as part of the campaign.
Rallies will be held around Australia today, which is Early Childhood Educators Day.
Seven thousand early childhood educators from 350 THE positive influence of yoga on mental health will be officially tested in a new Geelong-based trial that could see yoga used to treat depression and anxiety.
Researchers at Deakin University and Barwon Health are teaming up to monitor a multipronged approach in which yoga complements traditional psychological treatments.
Lead researcher Associate Professor Melissa O’Shea, a clinical psychologist with Deakin’s School of Psychology, said there was evidence to suggest the approach could be effective.
“In the past 10 years there has been a proliferation of research into alternative and complementary medical approaches in mental health, with yoga emerging as particularly promising,” she said.
The pilot trial will compare adults with anxiety and depression who complete a groupbased Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) course with a different group that completes the CBT program plus group yoga and a tailored yoga program.
Yoga teacher Jill Harris, one of the researchers for the project, said people were often attracted to yoga for its physical benefits but also noticed positive side-effects such as reduced stress, improved focus and less sleep problems.
The pilot trial will begin next month at Geelong’s Barwon Health Psychology Clinic, which is jointly led by Barwon Health and Deakin University and supported by the Western Victoria Primary Health Network.
For more information contact yogapsychology@deakin.edu.au childcare centres around the country are expected to walk off the job, with United Voice estimating 40,000 parents would be affected.
“Time’s up on the sector’s wages crisis,” United Voice assistant national secretary Helen Gibbons said.
“In 2018 it’s outrageous that Australia’s qualified early childhood educators are earning $22 an hour.”
Parents and carers have been informed in advance about closures.
In February, the Fair Work Commission decided to reject the union’s five-year case, which had sought a 35 per cent pay rise based on gender inequity.