The Government has to take responsibility for the dilema that many school support staff are now finding themselves in. They have won their pay rise but the Government has still not stated whether or not they will be funding this increase… What does this mean?
This means that schools have to pre-empt the possibility of funding the pay rises themselves out of their already minimal budgets. Just the other day I spoke with school support staff who have already been told by their schools that their hours will be decreased because of this – however, at this point in time their has been no indication to them that their workloads will be decreased to match the reduced hours they will be working. One woman told me that the Principal of her school asked her if she could just do it out of ‘aroha for the children’. Her response was only fair stating that she has children to feed and bills to pay and where is the aroha for her family during these tough times?
Chances are that she’ll be working to rule and good on her for standing her ground. However the sad thing about this is that low paid workers like her will be no better off and the children who were accessing the support of these wonderful workers – will be worse off. Thanks again National Government.
So, no actual increase in take home pay and leave the burden of implementation to the workers and the schools’ staff or BOT’s.
“We can give you no more money so you’ll have to do less hours for the increased wage or the same amount of work in less time or we’ll rely on your sense of duty and aroha to do the same amount of hours.”
In other words, no increase, worse conditions or a wage decrease.
Or, to one person “We can give you more money but some-one else gets less work or none at all,” and to the colleague, “We need your hours, and therefore your job, to pay your colleague more.”
In other words, job cuts.
Where is the aroha for all these people affected- trustee, principal, workers and colleagues?
Buck saving and buck passing both. Bah!
You’ve got it Mac1 – it’s a lose lose situation for everyone.
Good on you for bring this up Carmel,It is a lose lose situation for both the Support workers and the kids they are supporting
Absolutely right, Matt. Forgot the kids …..and their families, and the communities they live in. That’s nearly all of us losing, isn’t it? Double bah and humbug!
Yes, good for bringing this up. Shame for not bringing up that Labour did nothing to address low-pay issues for school support staff while in government, other than to say they`d do something to “address low pay issues for school support staff” after the election – but at a time when it was likely that National would win, so Labour wouldn’t have to address it anyway..
I didn’t fight an election expecting to lose, Dave. That’s loser talk. That’s stretching a bow to breaking point to think that was Labour thinking. It tells me more about your thinking than Labour’s thinking, political analysis like that.
Well , what a surprise . Two major issues
1 That the current government has put significant funding into other areas of education since the 2009 budget ( Private School funding and National standards to name two ) These 2 named areas has costings of around 60 million . Surely some of this funding could have been used in the support staff wage increase
2 That this current government continues to de value low income earners / workers . I’m sorry but when will our current government value workers for the job they undertake not just the salary wage they attract .
Finally , a small note there were signifcant gains in the support staff collective agreement in conditions under labour which included job security
Mac1, given that 1. research has indicated that most people had decided on who to vote for before the campaign even started and 2, Labour said it`ll address low pay issues just before the election date, that announcement was made pretty much when the ” fight” was over – whether you expected to lose or not.
Oh Well, I guess it will be the teachers that will have to do all the work involved in the collating and sending the new national standards data home to the parents. I wonder if they will have time to teach?
Dave, you connected an announcement and close proximity to an election to conclude that Labour would not honour that agreement since Labour would lose. Nothing you said at 10.47 justifies that.
The point is- did we believe we would lose? And if so, would we make any promises to get back such as to help support workers?
As I said, your unsubstantiated and coincidental allegation says more about how you think.
@Dave “Shame for not bringing up that Labour did nothing to address low-pay issues for school support staff while in government…”
Actually, under Labour, many good things happened for our education system, including Operational Grant increases, a world class 21st century curriculum, leadership and teacher development etc…all of which (much internationally reknown) is being slowly and surely eroded by the incompetence of Tolley and the Nat Gvt. It would be typical that the Nats would give a small increase and then not care how schools are meant to implement them – it will mean schools will need to make cuts – budgets will have been set and there is very little ‘fat’ to cut in a school budget once you take the fixed costs off – much like a business. The options will be:
- hours of support staff
- resources for curriculum (books, paper, pens..I am serious)
- charge more school ‘donations’ (that no one pays anyway)
- Fundraise
- bigger class numbers
So, just how is this supposed to be paid for? By waving a wand? This govts stupidity has no bounds! An increase in Support staff wages could be enough to cripple some schools already tight budget – and as I have already highlighted, there is very little room to take it from – unlike a business, it is hard work bringing in more income – and a state school should not have to.
@Dave you sound really out of touch – have a look at the changes in the pay rates for school support staff while Labour was in government and the way that the extra costs were always more than covered.
And I’m not sure that there had even been any negotiations on the most recent support staff wage claim while Labour was in government – there was a year under National a tiny increase and no funding.
George Lets stay on thread rather than try and debate the new curriculum ta Trevor
Hi Trevor
You are correct , the last round of Support Staff negiotations it took a matter of hours not months . There was a funding increase plus a improvement in conditions as stated above . The point was there was respect given of the valuable job that support staff do under labour !!!!
Funny thing is, the sector may not have always agreed with Labour, but at least Labour knows how to listen to the people who know the job best, and does not go all out to ruin a system that is held in high esteem internationally, brass off all the people who work in education and act like they know it all.