School Support Staff Prepare for Fresh Pay Negotiations

School Support Staff Prepare for Fresh Pay Negotiations in Fight for Fair Deal

Thousands of school support staff will be attending paid union meetings over the next two weeks to consider a pay claim aimed at delivering a fair deal for the work they do.

Support staff represent the largest area of staffing growth in schools, with more than 50 percent being teacher aides. They also include librarians, office managers, administrators, ICT specialists, sports co-ordinators and therapists. They are essential in supporting children’s learning and in the day to day management of schools but are among the lowest paid workforces in the country, often earning just $14 an hour.

At meetings organised by their union NZEI Te Riu Roa, they will be asked to vote on a pay claim to take into a fresh round of collective agreement negotiations. The claim would give a pay increase to all support staff, lift minimum rates to $15 an hour and better recognise the professionalism of support staff roles in schools.

NZEI National Secretary Paul Goulter says the last pay settlement for support staff in December 2009 came after a long hard fight and was significant in that it broke the government’s wage freeze at the time.

However he says “while that settlement achieved a ‘fairer’ deal for support staff they are still a long way off securing a truly ‘fair deal’.”

“These mainly women workers put a lot of time and professional effort into schools and children’s learning. They deserve to be valued for the work they do and have the increasing demands of their jobs recognised.”

“Their issues of low pay are compounded by job insecurity, cost of living and GST increases, pay and employment inequity, and the fact they got no real benefit from the tax cuts,” he says.

The paid union meetings are being held at different times in regions around the country over the next two weeks. If support staff vote in favour of the pay claim it’s expected they will enter into formal pay talks with the government in late March.

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