Special Ed Staff Accept Pay Rises of Up to 18%

Media Release November 2, 2005
From NZEI Te Riu Roa For Immediate Use
Ms05/51

Special Education Staff Vote to Accept Pay Rises of Up to 18%

Special education field staff, working in schools and early childhood education centres, have voted to accept a new collective agreement that will deliver pay rises of up to 18%.

They include psychologists, physiotherapists, special education advisors, speech language therapists, occupational therapists, early intervention teachers, advisers on deaf students and kaitakawaenga, who work with Maori students and their whanau.

They work with students in schools, both primary and secondary, and children in early childhood education centres, who have a wide range of physical, behavioural and other special educational needs. They also provide support for families of special needs students and children and the staff at centres and schools.

The agreement covers 700 special education field staff who work for the Ministry of Education and belong to NZEI Te Riu Roa. They attended 30 meetings held throughout the country and 77% voted to accept the new agreement.

The key elements of the agreement are:

- A new salary scale with increases in base pay rates of between 9.7% and 10.9%.

- The pay increases will be phased in over the three year term of the agreement.

- Transferring to the new pay scale will lead to pay rises ranging from 9.9% to 18%.

- A new maximum pay step of $67,800 for all groups, other than psychologists.

- A new maximum pay step for psychologists of $74,500.

“This is a landmark agreement for special education field staff,” says NZEI Te Riu Roa National President, Colin Tarr. “The creation of the new pay scale will deliver pay rises ranging from 9.9% to 18%.”

“These are major increases which recognise the value of the work special education field perform, in our schools and early childhood education centres, that enables children with special needs to get a quality education,” says Colin Tarr.

ENDS

© Scoop Media