School support staff face tough decision over pay equity

<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">This week&comma; thousands of school support staff will start holding paid union meetings around the country to decide whether the promise of a future pay equity settlement is enough to outweigh a &&num;8220&semi;miserly&&num;8221&semi; pay offer from the Ministry of Education&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">After six months of collective agreement negotiations between NZEI Te Riu Roa and the ministry&comma; support staff were finally offered pay rises ranging between 1&period;1-1&period;6 per cent&period; However&comma; if accepted&comma; the settlement will trigger planning of a process for pay equity talks for teacher aides&period; Negotiations for other support staff will follow&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">NZEI president Lynda Stuart said support staff had a tough decision to make at the meetings which will be held between August 1 and 16&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The pay offer is pitiful&comma; especially for people who are already often on extremely low wages and precarious employment from term to term&period; We also pushed hard for any increase to be funded by the government&comma; but that was refused and schools will have to pay the increase out of their stretched operating budgets&comma;” she said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The only cause for optimism is the prospect of a pay equity settlement for teacher aides&comma; with other support staff to follow&period; Aged care workers received government-funded pay rises of 20-40 per cent through their settlement&comma; so support staff may choose to accept the low pay rise now in anticipation of a big win down the track&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Pay equity is the single biggest opportunity the education sector has to win the major improvement in pay and conditions that support staff deserve&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;