School Support Staff To Consider Pay Claim

Paid stop work meetings get underway around the country over the next two weeks for school support staff - the so-called invisible workforce within the education sector.

10,700 support staff will be attending the meetings (Sept 4-18) to vote on a pay claim put together by their union, NZEI Te RIU ROA, to address low wages in the sector and restructure pay scales.

The NZEI National President Irene Cooper says the pay claim covers skilled non teaching staff such as teacher aides, administration staff, sports co-ordinators, librarians, and health support employees such as therapists and nurses. "These people are the cement that help hold schools together. No school could operate without them."

The claim, which has been put together following the widest ever consultation with members, seeks a ten percent wage increase over two years - five percent from January 2008 and another five percent from January 2009.

Ms Cooper says school support staff are one of the lowest paid workforces in the country. For example many teacher aides receive about $12.20 an hour, which she says is not reflective of their skill and commitment, nor the contribution they make to children's learning. "This is no longer a Mum's Army - these aren't parent helpers doing a bit of part-time work, these are skilled employees with a career working in schools alongside teachers" she says.

There are also serious issues of job security as support staff are bulk funded through schools' operations grants and Ms Cooper says many schools struggle to find adequate funding to pay them.

The NZEI is involved in a government review of school operations grant funding which is due to report to the Minister of Education next month, and it continues to campaign for a fairer and more effective system for funding support staff jobs. "We want to make it clear that bulk funding of support staff is the prime cause of lack of job security and low rates of pay in the sector and a better system must be developed," Ms Cooper says.

Attached is a list of when and where meetings are being held(Word .doc) around the country and there are people in some regions who would be available to be profiled or talk to the media.

ENDS

© Scoop Media