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.

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