School Support Staff Hope to See Better Pay Offer

School Support Staff Hope to See Better Pay Offer

Pay talks resume today (Wednesday 23 September) for thousands of frontline school support staff who are hoping to see an improved pay offer from the government.

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.

In a co-ordinated effort in August more than a thousand school support staff marched and rallied outside the offices of dozens of government and coalition MPs as part of “Fair Deal Friday”. They also presented an estimated 17,000 signatures from teachers, principals, parents and Boards of Trustee members to show the government that school communities back their fight for fair pay.

NZEI National Executive member Gaye Parlane says “we feel like the community has listened to us and there is a lot of awareness and support out there for what we do. It’s now time for the government to pick up on that and give support staff a fair deal.”

The negotiations are set down for two days.

ENDS

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