Paid parental leave and big increase in discounts on the way for Goodstart educators

Australia’s largest early childhood education and care (ECEC) provider, Goodstart Early Learning, has announced that, effective 1 March 2022, teachers and educators employed by the provider will receive paid parental leave and a large increase in childcare discounts. 

Permanent employees will be eligible to apply for up to four (4) weeks of paid parental leave, which, when combined with the federal government scheme, equates to a combined total of up to 22 weeks paid leave. If both parents happen to work for Goodstart they are both eligible for the leave. 

In the discounts space, non educator staff employed by Goodstart will be able to access discounts of between 15 and 30 per cent, while educators and teachers will be able to access a staff childcare discount of 50 per cent off their gap fee.

The measures, Goodstart CEO Julia Davison said, have been designed to support the large number of Goodstart staff who have young children or who are about to become parents, and are expected to benefit around 3,500 staff each year.

“We know that access to parental leave is a key part of providing an amazing (employee) experience and we hope that those staff planning for a new family member will feel supported to make the most of this wonderful time,” Ms Davison said.

“We also hope that when parents are ready to return to work, being able to access the significant childcare fee staff discount as well as our other family friendly policies will mean that (employees) will know they have the support and flexibility to make the transition back to work as easy as possible.”

Other benefits recently introduced to Goodstart staff include extra non-contact time, educator wages at 4-5 per cent above award, teacher wages commensurate with government school rates and salary packaging opportunities available only to not-for-profit entities.  

For more information about the recent changes to the CCS discounting space please see here.