THE third lockdown in England closes schools for most but keeps early-years settings, such as nurseries and child minders, open.

This exposes workers in this sector, already vulnerable because of their low pay and in-work poverty, to greater risk of Covid-19 infection.

The government will argue that this is because childcare is still necessary.

We should remember that affordable childcare is demanded by an inefficient and broken capitalist system.

In fact, state-sponsored childcare is a subsidy to employers, which enables them to keep wages low.

It can only be achieved by paying some women the minimum wage for looking after the children of others, so that they can earn more doing something else.

I suggest the real reason for the government deciding to keep early-years settings open is simply that the early-years workforce is largely female and non-unionised, resulting in systematic weakness in bargaining and negotiation.

The government would never admit it, but this badly managed lockdown, with the move to remote learning and closure of schools to most children, is a victory for the teaching unions.

The non-unionised early-years sector, in contrast, is viewed by this government as a “soft touch.”

The early-years sector is a mixed economy of meagre state provision which exists alongside the private and third sectors.

Much state funding for early years leaches into the private sector.

The early years workforce is largely female, largely non-unionised, low-paid and relatively poorly qualified.

Starting pay for a primary teacher outside London is around £24,000.

Pay in early years outside London is generally in the range of £8.60 per hour and may be term-time only.

There is an obvious opportunity for the National Education Union, possibly in conjunction with other unions in the sector, to embrace early-years workers to protect them in the short-term, change the nature of provision and “level up” pay and conditions of the early childhood workforce in the longer term.

The National Education Union should today begin a recruitment drive of early years workers.

Tony Rea is a Labour councillor in Ivybridge, south Devon, and a member of the Socialist Educational Association’s national executive committee. He is now retired, having worked in secondary schools and universities in Britain and overseas. Tony Has a PhD in education from the University of Plymouth. All views expressed here are his own.