Work with hands, heads, or hearts - it's all equal
No matter who you are or what kind of work you do, you deserve to be paid fairly for your work. But for women, achieving fair pay has been a long, hard battle which is not over yet.
An exciting new era for pay equity in education
On 6 November 2020, making a pay equity claim became a whole lot simpler when the Equal Pay Amendment Act came into force.
That's why we initiated pay equity claims for 10 groups of employees represented by NZEI Te Riu Roa. This is a long term process to uncover the full extent of the undervaluing of women's work across education. So it's essential that NZEI Te Riu Roa begins this work now.
We have already completed pay equity settlements for Ministry of Education support workers, and more recently teacher aides. Seeing a claim through takes time, resources and expertise. Where our union represents a group of workers, we're best placed to initiate the pay equity process and bring it to a successful settlement.
Who is covered by the pay equity claims raised since 6 November 2020?
The claims cover:
- Librarians and library assistants
- Science technicians
- Therapists (including occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech language therapists)
- Education Advisers (Adviser On Deaf Children, Special Education/Learning Support Adviser, Kaitakawaenga, District Māori Advisors and Disabilities Facilitator)
- Psychologists
- Service Managers
- Kindergarten administrators
- Kindergarten cooks
- Kindergarten teacher aides
The three ECE support staff claims will begin with kindergarten staff as these roles are already well defined. Admin, teacher aides and cooks at other employers will be added as they are identified. If you are ECE support staff and an NZEI Te Riu Roa member, please let us know at payequity@nzei.org.nz which group you and your employer should be added to. If you are not yet a member, you can join and let us know which support staff group you are in.
Claims already underway:
- School administrators
- Kaiārahi i te reo
Settlements completed:
- Ministry of Education Support Workers (2018)
- School teacher aides (2020)
Join up to join in
You can help make the movement for fair pay unstoppable. Stand alongside us as a member of NZEI Te Riu Roa. It takes just a few minutes to become a member.
Our settlements
Since we started our pay equity campaign we have won a settlement for Education Support Workers and in 2020, we won a settlement for teacher aides in schools. Both of these were long-found campaigns with NZEI Te Riu Roa members taking the lead.
We've made history and we're just getting started, now's the time to get involved.
School teacher aides
Teacher aides received their new rates in November 2020, backpaid to 12 February 2020.
Part of the pay equity settlement was an increase to the PLD fund to teacher aides. You can find out more here.
Ministry of Education Support Workers
The terms of settlement for Ministry of Education Support Workers represents an historic and life-changing moment in what was a 12 year battle.
Show your support
Show your support for pay equity by adding a Fair's Fair/Mana Taurite frame to your Facebook profile picture.
Kathy, Mary, and Denise walk alongside NZEI President Lynda Stuart and supporters as they head off to pay equity mediation.
Photo: Mark Coote.