Why I Joined SIPTU — A Providers’ Perspective
Minna Murphy is a private provider in Kerry and an SIPTU member. She spoke to the Big Start campaign about why unionisation is good for her staff and her business.
Why did you open your service?
My husband and I moved to Ireland from Finland in 2013 to take over my husband’s family farm. I had studied and worked in Finland for over 15 years in the Early Years sector and wanted to open up my own sessional preschool service here on the farm. I wanted to offer a service that could provide local families with outdoor activities for their children in a farm setting.
What was it like opening your service?
I bought the service from another local service provider when she wanted to have a career change. I am really thankful to her for all the advice and help she gave to me because it was difficult understanding the way things work in the Early Years sector here in Ireland. I also had to get a business loan in order to construct a purpose-built preschool building. So it was quite a stressful time due to having to take on large financial debt while also trying to figure out all the rules and regulations in the sector.
What the best thing about your job?
The best thing about my job is working with the children and their families. I am really passionate about my work and I truly enjoy working with young children. I love to see the children flourishing, learning new things, socialising with their peers and enjoying their childhood. I feel privileged to be part of their journey.
I also enjoy being part of our small group of staff. We have a very good team with very motivated people.
What’s the worst thing about your job?
Being both owner and manager in the service I have a lot of responsibilities in many different areas outside of delivering the daily curriculum (e.g. managing parents, staff, inspectors, finance). I can’t even count the hours that I spend working at home in my own personal time after the “official” working day is over. Sometimes the paperwork required can be overwhelming and I am giving up too much of my own personal time for too little financial reward.
How do you think your work is recognised?
There is a lot of research available to explain how important high quality Early Years education is as the foundation for the wellbeing and development of children as they grow towards adulthood. While I believe that a lot of policymakers, academics and even some parents pay lip service to the importance of our sector, the sector still does not enjoy the same status within the broader education system as primary school teaching does. I feel that early years education should be appreciated more and afforded the same level of respect as primary school education.
What would you like to change?
I would like to have more financial recognition in the sector through better pay and conditions. Service providers and staff get paid for only 38 weeks per year and not for the remaining 14 while primary school teachers do. How is that fair? Primary school teachers have paid holidays and they do their training during working hours (e.g the new Children First child protection training) whereas Early Years service providers need to attend these courses in their own personal time and at their own expense.
The way the ECCE system is funded at the moment is flawed because the more children that are placed in a room the greater the financial reward for the service. But this incentivizes high adult to child ratios which has a negative effect on the quality of education because there is less opportunity for one on one teaching with each individual child.
Also I feel that the demands that are put on Early Years service providers from Health and Safety inspections are higher than what is expected of primary schools. For example at my sessional preschool where children attend 3 hours per day, I had to provide a fridge to store their lunch. Next year when they attend primary school the same lunches will sit in a school bag for 5 hours and the primary schools will not need to provide fridges. I had to buy the fridge from my own personal account because I did not have money in the business budget for it.
There seems to be a lot of demands on Early Years educators, but not much recognition and status for the great work we do.
What is it like employing people?
My service is located in a fairly rural area and since it is a sessional preschool I can’t always offer many hours per week. It is challenging to find people with the relevant qualification to come and work only half a day. Luckily I have enough children attending this year that I have two sessions per day and I can therefore offer more hours for my staff but this can change from year to year and retaining staff could again become challenging.
Are you able to pay your staff what you would like?
I am paying them more than the average wage in the sector at the moment. I want to keep the staff motivated and although we all do our work with love and passion for it, we all have to pay bills too. I want to be fair with my staff and I also pay for the extra time that they need to do e.g. staff meetings that we have after official working hours.
But after paying my staff a fair salary, PRSI and other expenses (e.g business loan repayments, insurance, toys, equipment, replacing furniture, craft materials), I don’t have much money left to pay myself. Basically since I opened my service in 2015 the most I have been able to pay myself in a year has been €5000. I am also a staff member in the service but I am not earning a living wage!
Why, as a private provider, did you choose to join SIPTU?
In Finland the Early Years sector is heavily unionised and therefore due to the power of collective bargaining, service providers there are funded much better than in Ireland. As a result of this, staff enjoy higher wages and better working conditions (e.g. paid sick leave, holidays, training and overtime etc) in Finland. I joined SIPTU because I have seen firsthand the many advantages of having a unionised sector. In Ireland we need our work to be properly financially supported in order for Early Years educators to be able make a decent living from our profession. I believe that all Early Years educators, both owners and staff, should join SIPTU because the power of numbers demanding improvements is the only way forward.
If we demand change with one united voice we can achieve the creation of a Sectoral Employment Order for the Early Years sector. Achieving increased investment commitments from the Government will benefit all services and make them more financially sustainable because it will improve their ability to retain qualified experienced staff. Motivated staff who earn a good professional salary can only help to contribute towards a high quality of service for the children of Ireland going forward.
