Lift pay of support staff to that of prison officers – NZEI

<h4 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">NZEI Te Riu Roa is calling on the government to acknowledge low paid women &&num;8220&semi;working for free&&num;8221&semi; from today&comma; by lifting the pay of education support workers and teacher aides to equal that paid to corrections officers&period;<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">New Zealand women are paid&comma; on average 13 per cent less than men&comma; and with 13 per cent of the year to go&comma; women in New Zealand are effectively &&num;8220&semi;working for free&&num;8221&semi; from today&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;More than 90 per cent of the support staff working in schools and early childhood education are women&comma; doing some of the most important work in New Zealand for some of the lowest rates of pay&comma;&&num;8221&semi; NZEI president Louise Green said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;The government can today make pay equity a reality for thousands of women who help Kiwi children learn&comma; by paying them the same as the mostly men who work in New Zealand&&num;8217&semi;s prisons&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&lbrack;pro&lowbar;ad&lowbar;display&lowbar;adzone id&equals;&&num;8221&semi;4703&&num;8243&semi; align&equals;&&num;8221&semi;left&&num;8221&semi;&rsqb;&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Corrections officers and teacher aides are both level four jobs on the Australian and New Zealand standard job classification system&comma; yet beginner corrections officers &lpar;prior to any training&rpar; are paid &dollar;3&period;63 an hour more than the most experienced teacher aides&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Teacher aides and support workers have waited more than six months for the government to agree to some basic equal pay principles put forward by a joint equal pay working group&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Ms Green said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;Its hard to believe that the government would make women wait six months to sign off on these principles&comma; if it is really serious about paying women fairly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;When you&&num;8217&semi;re on poverty-level wages&comma; every day you&&num;8217&semi;re forced to wait for the decent pay you deserve is an insult&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;It&&num;8217&semi;s time to stop shortchanging teachers&comma; children and support staff and provide the better funding that every child in early childhood education and at schools needs to reach their potential&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;