School staff gathering outside Education Minster Erica Stanford’s office in Browns Bay. Photo: RNZ/ Victor Waters
Dozens of people are gathered outside the electorate office of Erica Stanford in northern Auckland this morning.
The group are protesting recent pay equity changes and calling for increased pay for school support staff ahead of the budget next week.
They were organised by the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) union and plan to hand an open letter to Stanford.
NZEI has told RNZ it is negotiating collective agreements with the Ministry of Education which has offered zero-percent pay increases.
School staff gathering outside Education Minster Erica Stanford's office in Browns Bay, Auckland. Photo: RNZ/Victor Waters
Jan Monds, a teacher aide at Knighton Normal School in Hamilton, joined the protest and said support staff felt undervalued.
"I'd love Minister Stanford to come in and hoist, toilet, tube feed a child, and deal with medically fragile children, deal with those that are in Year 6 and are struggling to read and write," she said.
"I think she may get a better sense of what we do."
Monds said support staff needed more funding to meet tamariki's needs.
The recent pay equity changes were a kick in the stomach, she said.
"It's just another means by which the government have let us know that they really don't value us nor the work we do," Monds said.
In response the Education Ministry's hautū (leader) of education workforce Anna Welanyk said the Ministry has made several offers in good faith to settle an agreement with school support staff, including teacher aides, in the current bargaining round.
She said none of these offers were 'zero offers'.
"All our offers included increases to pay rates for school support staff who would not otherwise receive an annual pay rise. In addition to pay, the Ministry has offered improvements to conditions in response to claims brought by the union."
Welanyk said the Ministry met with the union on Thursday and proposed an offer which provides increases on the rates of pay for all support staff in schools.
According to the Ministry rates of pay for school support staff have increased by up to 15.3 percent since 2022. That does not include the up to 40 percent pay change school support staff received when their pay equity claims were settled between 2020 to 2023.
