Early childhood education and care supported bargaining agreement

On 10 December 2024, a Full Bench of the Commission approved the ECEC Multi-Employer Enterprise Agreement 2024-2026. This is a type of supported bargaining agreement. It applies to the employers listed in Part G of the agreement and their children’s services and early childhood education sector employees.

This agreement is a workplace instrument.  

Certain employers and their employees in the early childhood education and care sector can join the coverage of this agreement. Once added, the agreement terms will apply to them.

To join this agreement, a variation must be made and then approved by the Commission.

A variation may be made:

• jointly by the employer and their employees, or
• by a union, if a majority of the employees to be covered want to be covered.

Employers and their employees are eligible to apply if the employees perform the following types of work in a long day care setting, including:

• work covered by the Children’s Services Award 2010
• work covered by the Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020
• work performed by a qualified chef or cook not covered by the Children’s Services Award 2010 or the Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020.

Employers and employees cannot be added to the coverage of this supported bargaining agreement if employees are working in the following settings:

• adjunct care
• a stand alone preschool or kindergarten
• occasional care
• out of hours school care
• vacation care
• mobile centres or
• stand alone early childhood intervention programs. 

To join this supported bargaining agreement, a variation to the agreement must be made to add employers and their employees.

The variation has no effect unless it is approved by us.

A variation to add employers and employees may be applied for:

• jointly by the employers and their employees, or
• by a union, if a majority of the employees to be covered want to be covered.

Learn more about varying supported bargaining agreements on the adding employer and their employees to a supported bargaining agreement page. 

Use the following forms to apply to vary the supported bargaining agreement to add employers and their employees. 

Follow the instructions on each form. The form will explain how to lodge or submit it to us.

When you apply to us to approve a variation to add employers and their employees to this supported bargaining agreement, we add details to this ‘variations in progress’ section.