Comments on: Support school support staff

By: kevin

kevin — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:00:37 +0000

The support staff collective agreement has been settled and it is now with members who will be voting on accepting or rejecting the settlement.

Thank you to all those who supported these low paid workers during a year long campaign.

There have been comments that increasing support staff wages will merely see their hours of work cut. While there is some truth in that it should not prevent these workers fighting for a decent living wage. The logical conclusion to that argument is that support staff should work for nothing, then they would not get the hours cut.

The real issue is the funding mechinism. It is the funding mechanism that drives the low pay and cuts in hours. Support staff clearly understand this and are determined to change the system.

By: Wanda

Wanda — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:04:40 +0000

As a Support Staff worker I can tell you that we work very hard for our meagre pay. Supporting students in class or withdrawn in small groups working with language needs, disabilities, learning difficulties and behaviours that can sometimes mean coping daily with physical and verbal abuse that the class teacher cannot cope with so students are assigned a Teacher Aide and or other Learning Support Staff are needed to fill the need. They are at times the only constant support in some students day and can really make a difference. Don’t give us a hard time, value us, treat us well and hope we can make a difference to some of these students that will probably make their way into our prisons without some kind of early intervention. The system is far from perfect and has not been fair for some years now with little help from this or the previous government.

The ascending payscales referred to increase by around 20 cents each year, hardly anything to get excited about. When you then have to stretch your income out to cover school holidays things can become rather difficult for these people, especially over the six week Christmas break.

Your time would be much better spent coming up with a practical solution of how to assist us to gain recognised qualifications and provide career pathways so that we don’t lose the best people but support them and allow them to go on and become teachers, counsellors or specialist support staff in the education sector.

I am proud of my work as a school librarian, PMP Coordinator, Teacher Aide and feel frustrated by the lack of understanding of today’s role. We are no longer parent helper’s. I’m yet to hear of a well paid Teacher Aide, but I live in hope. Sign up for a day at a South Auckland School and then tell me the support staff don’t earn every penny. Give us a break, we need a fair deal.

By: j abba

j abba — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:50:32 +0000

ok Darien .. they have been caught in the same way as “high income” workers passing into the top tax bracket got caught.

By: Darien Fenton

Darien Fenton — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:18:51 +0000

@Jabba – the minimum wage was moving during those years as well, and in fact caught up with a lot of lower paid workers during Labour’s time because the minimum wage moved faster than average pay increases. So each time the minimum wage increased, the numbers of workers included as minimum wage workers increased by thousands. “Steady” pay increases were around 3%, although school support staff got 4% in 2008.
I’m with Julie on Bea’s post. School support staff work only 40 weeks a year, so whichever way you calculate it, most of them are being paid less than $20,000 pa.

By: Julie Fairey

Julie Fairey — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:41:58 +0000

Hang on a sec, how exactly are they all getting pay rises? The lowest grade, Grade A Associate(there are three, and two occupational groups as well) has only four steps, the lowest being $12.94 and the highest is $13.80. So if you are talking about annual increments (i.e. you go up a pay step every year) then all of those on Grade A Associate Step 4 are not getting any pay increase whatsoever. This is the same for those at the top of the other 5 pay scales within the agreement. And in actual fact in my experience many of those doing this work don’t actually get the right pay increments anyway – I’ve personally done pay tracks for members who have been owed literally thousands of dollars because their pay hasn’t been done correctly for years.

Quite apart from the fact that the increment recognises the extra year’s skills, knowledge and experience in the job, not the increasing cost of living or the increasing value of the work. I know there are a lot of people out there who aren’t on pay scales and thus aren’t familiar with how they work, but perhaps Bea could recognise that their statement is far from correct.

By: j abba

j abba — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:40:54 +0000

thanks for that Bea .. good to know someone is getting a payrise especially those at the lower end of the scale and not by way of a benefit.

By: Trevor Mallard

Trevor Mallard — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:14:57 +0000

Bea pleae don’t pretend they all go thru to the top rate or anything like it. To get there one has to be in restricted job type.

By: Bea

Bea — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:58:46 +0000

Jabba, school support staff are paid on an ascending scale system. On an annual basis, they move up a grade and thus get a payrise each year until they reach the top of the scale. ‘44 cents over the minimum wage’ only applies to those who are starting at the bottom. The scales go up to something like $30 an hour. There is of course no restriction on schools on paying an employee more than the amount determined by the pay-scale.

When Carol says there’s a 0% wage offer on the table, it doesn’t mean they’re not all getting payrises. They are. They have a better deal than many in the private sector. The enforced payrises can make it difficult for schools when the employee’s longevity means they are on a rung of the pay-scale that doesn’t equate to their skills.

By: jabba

jabba — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 07:01:15 +0000

Darien .. Carol has said they are just .44cents over the minimum wage … “They had steady pay increases throughout Labour’s time in government” .. can you please define steady?

By: Darien Fenton

Darien Fenton — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:28:28 +0000

@bob – not true about no pay-rise for support staff. They had steady pay increases throughout Labour’s time in government and Helen Clark made an explicit election promise for a “pay jolt” for school support staff, using the same mechanism Labour funded to give school cleaners and caretakers and hospital service workers a significant pay increase in 2008.

Labour was tackling low pay in the state, and in state funded areas – unfortunately, the election of a National government stopped it in its tracks.