Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
Licence needed for work use Learn More

Gordon Campbell | Parliament TV | Parliament Today | News Video | Crime | Employers | Housing | Immigration | Legal | Local Govt. | Maori | Welfare | Unions | Youth | Search

 

ACC Changes Will Penalise Low Paid School Staff

15th October 2009 For Immediate Release

ACC Changes Will Penalise Low Paid School Support Staff


Proposed changes to ACC will seriously penalise low paid education workers according to the education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa.

The government is planning to reverse the 2008 income compensations covering casual and part-time workers. It means non-earning periods will once again be taken into account when working out weekly earnings related compensation.

NZEI represents 12,000 frontline school support staff such as teacher aides, librarians and office managers. They are one of the lowest paid workforces in the country and most do not get paid during school holidays. NZEI National Secretary Paul Goulter says the proposed changes to the way ACC payments are calculated will disadvantage them.

“The result will be that if a support staff member gets sick or injured their weekly compensation payment will be dragged down because their average earnings could be based on non-earning periods such as school holidays including the long Christmas break.”

“Many of these workers earn little more than the minimum wage as it is and they are currently victims of the government’s wage freeze policy. This is just another blow at a time when they can least afford it,” says Mr Goulter.

ends


Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

© Scoop Media

 
 
 
Parliament Headlines | Politics Headlines | Regional Headlines

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

LATEST HEADLINES

  • PARLIAMENT
  • POLITICS
  • REGIONAL
 
 

Featured News Channels


 
 
 
 

Join Our Free Newsletter

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.