Staff say Genius Childcare Centres won’t reopen after mass resignation of WA educators over pay and super

Dozens of staff at WA’s Genius Childcare Centres resigned last week after not being paid for more than a month. This comes after several centres closed in the eastern States due to centres owing thousands in unpaid rent. Genius has 39 centres, including four in WA — at Lakelands, Mandurah, Hamilton Hill and Victoria Park. The WA centres won’t have enough educators to open on Monday after the mass resignation. An employee at a Mandurah centre, who asked for her name to be withheld, told The West she resigned after her and other staff had not been paid in five weeks. “The last week has been quite bad. We have four children, we have a mortgage,” she said. “It’s mentally draining, that someone’s withholding my money that I’ve worked hard for.” The educator started at Genius last year and said pay issues started immediately. “Our very first pay never came when it was supposed to,” she said. “We thought it may have been a glitch. “We started noticing our pay days were getting a day behind. Then it was behind by a week.” She said one colleague was forced to get a personal loan to survive. “It’s not on, you’ve got people defaulting on mortgages and car payments,” she said. “The girls were financially strained, you become burnt out.” The United Workers Union launched legal action in the Federal and Family Courts of Australia to recover unpaid superannuation and penalties. The Mandurah worker said 10 staff were impacted at her centre and about 70 families would have to find alternative care. A union campaign was started to help educators who they say face an “ongoing nightmare”. “Working without wages, choosing between feeding their families or keeping their jobs. Some have been forced to visit food banks just to survive,” the United Workers Union said. Jessika Anderson, a former manager at Hamilton Hill told the ABC she quit after using her savings to pay staff. She said the centre wasn’t paying its bills, including rubbish and gas. Jarad McIntee, a parent at Lakelands, said they were left waiting at the door after the centre closed unexpectedly last month. Another Lakelands parent said Genius owed her childcare fees paid in advance from her account. On Sunday, the Herald Sun reported that Genius director Darren Misquitta, who reportedly owes $7 million to staff, had ‘gone missing’. UWU President Jo Schofield said Mr Misquitta, pictured inset, had not been seen for around six months and was “missing in action”. “The rumour mill is in overdrive, reporting him in Hong Kong, Japan, the Gold Coast and other locations, but the truth is no one seems to know for sure,” she said. In a letter to staff sent in June last year, Mr Misquitta admitted staff weren’t being paid on time blaming it on a “fast-growing business and lack of manpower”. The group is also being investigated by The Fair Work Ombudsman. The West has contacted Genius for comment.