Teacher aides welcome pay equity negotiations

<h3>Teacher aides have welcomed the Ministry of Education&&num;8217&semi;s agreement to begin pay equity negotiations in the week of December 16th&period;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The Ministry of Education and NZEI Te Riu Roa yesterday signed a framework for the pay equity bargaining for teacher aides&period; The framework addresses both short-term issues such as pay rates and allowances as well as the need for more comprehensive&comma; longer-term changes to address job insecurity&comma; career pathways and the way funding is delivered to schools for teacher aides&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Teacher aide Ally Kemplen&comma; who is on NZEI Te Riu Roa&&num;8217&semi;s pay equity negotiation team&comma; says teacher aides will be welcoming the long-awaited negotiations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;These negotiations will give us the opportunity to build on the offer last week of a Living Wage as the base pay for all support staff&comma; and to win fair pay that truly reflects the essential contribution teacher aides make to children&&num;8217&semi;s learning&comma;&&num;8221&semi; she says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;At the moment&comma; most teacher aides have insecure fixed-term jobs and many have to find extra work or go on the benefit just to survive outside of the school term&period; We&&num;8217&semi;ll be pushing for a pay equity settlement to include changes to the Ministry&&num;8217&semi;s funding model so that teacher aides can have secure and sustainable employment&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The teacher aide claim&comma; raised by NZEI Te Riu Roa members more than two years ago&comma; addresses the historic under-valuation of the expertise&comma; skills and responsibilities of teacher aides&comma; who are predominantly women&period; Teacher aides play a critical role in supporting children with the most challenging learning needs and are essential to 21st century teaching and learning&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The pay equity claim is a separate process to the support collective agreement negotiations&period; Members will vote on a collective agreement offer from the Ministry of Education&comma; which includes the Living Wage as a new minimum rate&comma; over the coming week&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;