City of Karratha to provide gym memberships to childcare workers

Childcare workers will be able to get free gym memberships in Karratha and Wickham as part of the local government’s push to attract more employees to the struggling sector. City of Karratha councillors voted at their February 28 meeting to match the Regional Childcare Workers Retention Initiative grant of $25,000 to cover the cost of a 12-month gym membership at the Karratha Leisureplex or Wickham Recreation Precinct. The total funding of $50,000 would cover memberships for about 50 of the region’s 96 childcare workers. A 12-month corporate membership at the Karratha Leisureplex costs $1248 a year, while at the Wickham Recreation Precinct it is $752. A city officers’ report said childcare operators in the district said housing and the cost of living were the biggest challenges to attracting and keeping staff. “The information provided is that on their hourly rate (average of $29), many staff find it difficult to have funds available for their personal fitness and recreation,” it said. “If the city was to receive the full grant of $25,000, this will result in approximately 25 memberships, dependent on which facility they were at.” The report said by matching the grant it would double the number of people covered. Mayor Peter Long said the membership would benefit a lot of childcare workers. “We do it for our own staff and it’s very successful, so we thought that we would match the amount given to us by the State Government and that way we could cover more people,” he said. “We just think it was something that we could do that was quite simple.”