School administration staff and kaiārahi i te reo took a step closer to pay equity today with the signing of terms of reference for two pay equity claims between NZEI Te Riu Roa and the Ministry of Education.

The signing of the terms of reference kick starts the job assessment phase of the pay equity process. Starting early next term, interviews will be conducted with admin staff and kaiārahi i te reo to get a full understanding of the scope and variety of their work and to ensure they are then properly valued for the complex and demanding jobs they do.

The staff covered by these claims are an important part of the education workforce, with approximately 10,000 administration and clerical staff, and 79 kaiārahi i te reo working in primary, intermediate, area, secondary schools and kura.

School administrator Julie-Anne Roberts, support staff representative on NZEI National Executive, said the signing was very exciting.

"It’s taken time to get to this point, with some extra delay because of COVID-19, but we’ve done a lot of background work already to ensure we hit the ground running. We've learned a lot from the teacher aide pay equity process and we strongly believe that our process can be completed much more quickly as a result."

Margie Robson, a support staff representative on Te Reo Areare said "kaiārahi i te reo are highly skilled staff who have an incredibly important job in being responsible for the quality of te reo in schools. Acknowledging their specialist skills through the pay equity process will bring much needed recognition to these workers and the contribution they make to both the children they work with and to wider society."

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