Pay Talks For School Support Staff Begin

May 3 2009

For use May 4 2009

Critical Pay Talks Get Underway To Deliver Fair Deal To School Support Staff

Talks Begin To Deliver Fair Deal for School Support Staff

Critical pay talks get underway today (Monday 4 May) aimed at delivering fair pay and job security for thousands of low paid education staff around the country.

The collective agreement for school support staff expired on March 1 and after weeks of government delays, negotiations on a fresh pay claim between their union NZEI Te Riu Roa and the Ministry of Education will finally begin today. More dates are scheduled over the next two weeks.

The focus of the NZEI’s pay claim is around a pay jolt for support staff which was promised by the Labour government last year, in line with the pay jolt school cleaners and caretakers are to receive in July. NZEI wants to see the government commit new money so the pay jolt can be negotiated into reality for school support staff.

Many support staff earn as little as $12.94 an hour – only marginally above the minimum wage of $12.50. Of NZEI’s 13,000 support staff members, about 95 percent would earn well below the new average wage of $24.55 an hour.

NZEI National Executive member and negotiating team leader Gaye Parlane says “we work at the frontline of education and these negotiations are a vital opportunity for the government to address our low pay issues.”

“Support staff have been waiting for years for a fair deal and in times of economic recession, any money which goes towards supporting the teaching and learning of children should be seen as an investment, not a cost,” she says.

NZEI National Secretary Paul Goulter adds “NZEI is also looking to these negotiations to act as a launching pad for in-depth work with the Ministry in identifying best employment practice models for support staff and to design career pathway options for them.”

ENDS

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