School Support Staff Powerful Message For Minister

Media Release
September 29th, 2009

From NZEI Te Riu Roa
For immediate use

School Support Staff Drive Powerful Fair Deal Message Home To Education Minister

School support staff have laid down a strong challenge to the Minister of Education for the government to recognise their work and settle their pay negotiations with a fair pay offer.

At the Annual Meeting of NZEI, the country’s largest education sector union, 400 people wearing pink and black t-shirts delivered that message with a powerful haka in front of Anne Tolley at Wellington’s Town Hall.

Support staff such as teacher aides, librarians, nurses, office managers and sports co-coordinators, are essential in supporting children’s learning and in the day to day management of schools. However they are among the lowest paid workforces in the country – many earning as little as $12.94 an hour - and have been fighting for years to have their skills acknowledged and valued.

Their collective agreement expired in March and so far the government has not tabled an offer that, with inflation taken into account, maintains the current value of support staff wages, let alone provides reasonable recognition of the value of their work.

NZEI support staff member Gaye Parlane says we wanted the Minister to see for herself the strength of feeling around our pay issues, not just from support staff themselves but also from primary and early childhood teachers and school principals, who also joined in the haka.

“We are no longer just mothers helping out in schools - we are professionals who want to be valued as a professional workforce. I hope the Minister won’t easily forget standing in front of a pink and black army of support staff, teachers and principals who simply want a fair deal for support staff, and that she will take that message back to her government.”

ENDS

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