Education’s “Invisible Army” Celebrated

Monday June 11 2007

Contribution Of Education’s “Invisible Army” Celebrated - School Support Staff Day 2007

The essential contribution more than 20,000 school support staff make to education is being recognised in celebrations around New Zealand organised by their union, NZEI Te Riu Roa, on Wednesday (June 13th).

NZEI President Irene Cooper says School Support Staff Day honours the growing army of skilled staff who contribute alongside teachers to successful student learning and the effective running of primary, area and secondary schools for the 21st century.

Support staff include people who provide:

- Support for student learning (e.g. teacher aides, lab technicians and librarians)
- School administration (e.g. executive officers, financial administrators, data managers)
- Support for student health and well-being (e.g. physiotherapists and school nurses)
- School maintenance and support (e.g. property managers and school caretakers).

“These people are the cement that helps hold schools together. No school could operate without them,” Ms Cooper says. “But because their pay is funded through schools’ operations grants, these workers often have poor job security and lower pay than in other parts of the public sector.

“NZEI has successfully campaigned for a government review of school operational funding to address these issues. We confidently expect that once the review concludes its report in September that the current Labour Government will move to address low pay in this sector. Significant pay increases for support staff have been put on hold for the past two years while the review is in train, so members have a reasonable expectation that the Government will address their situation when their pay bargaining begins in October.”

She says support staff chalked up two significant achievements in the past year, winning annualisation of pay and a milestone Employment Court decision on teacher aide grading. (1)

Note to Editors:

1. Annualisation enables support staff who do not get paid for term breaks to have their pay “annualised” – that is spread across the 52 weeks of the year. For more information on annualisation or the Employment Court case, see www.nzei.org.nz

2. Irene Cooper will be joining school support staff celebrations in Oamaru, Waimate and Dunedin on Wednesday.

3. LOCAL SUPPORT STAFF DAY EVENTS: Support staff members of NZEI Te Riu Roa will mark the day with a range of events, including dinners and school morning teas.

ENDS

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