Stronger Together for Fair Pay

Pay Jolt for School Support Staff (29 Sept 2008) NZEI welcomes a promise from Prime Minister Helen Clark that a “pay jolt” will be delivered to thousands of school support staff.   Media Release 2008/49 (0.1mb pdf) Pay Jolt not a Political Football (1 Oct 2008) Support staff in schools will be deeply disappointed that the National Party has failed to commit to a promised “pay jolt” for school support staff.   Media Release 2008/51 (0.1mb pdf)

<sub>Above: Prime Minister Helen Clark delivers a promise to school Support Staff at NZEI Annual Meeting (29 September 2008).


Above: National's education spokesperson Anne Tolley responds to Prime Minister Helen Clark's announcement regarding Support Staff pay increases (30 September 2008).</sub>

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NZEI’s key objectives within the sector are to deliver improved support staff pay rates and to ensure that schools have additional funding to cover these costs.

NZEI is currently:

• lobbying government politicians to ensure the low pay and underfunding issues are well understood
• building sector wide support for a campaign for fair pay for support staff. (NZEI believes that principals and boards will strongly support a campaign for better pay for support staff, provided that they receive additional government funding to enable them to pay higher rates.)
• continuing to work on restructuring the pay scales for support staff
• designing and distributing resources to support the campaign
• arranging, resourcing and facilitating members’, paid union meetings in November
• supporting members in their efforts to build support staff membership and actively encouraging non members to join.

NZEI members have been lobbying politicians around the country, generating news articles, and sending in emails to support the campaign. Please contact ssfairpay@nzei.org.nz to voice your support or tell us what you have been doing to help the campaign gain momentum.

_{Above: NZEI National Secretary Paul Goulter speaking about the campaign at the National Support Staff Conference in Rotorua during August 2008.}