Supporting Success in Education

My views on the pay deal

The pay rise and other points for the leadership team. Well after all the traffic that has gone on the Fair Deal boards I thought I would start my own discussion.

Grateful you may be Chic it still does not get away from the fact that it is a very poor deal. Lets use some random figures. Lets say that you earn your money to feed your family. It costs $100 to feed your family and you are paid $100. A year later you get the pay rise of 1.5% inflation is running at 5% your pay goes up to $101.50 your shopping goes up to $105 a net loss of $3.50 in other words a pay CUT of $3.50. Take away also this year the 6 months loss of our pay rise that makes it 0.75% pay rise take away the $1 increase in subs 20% o the pay rise that now falls to lets say 0.15% that gives us a pay rise in $ of $0.6 which now means our pay will be $100.60 now a net loss of $4.40. Call that a well worked deal I certainly don’t.

I posted this reply yesterday a starting point. I did not even mention the tax on our pay rise!!!

A second point and one that will probably cause discussion in the ranks. Why is there so many different pay scales in the system for support staff? Why is there a different pay scale for Administrative and Associate staff and why is it that Scale A stops for associate at step 2 but goes on for Admin staff to step 4? And on the same subject why do the Admin scale B get 14 steps and the associate scale only 8? Scale C seems to be a bit fairer until step 8 then Admin goes its own merry way. Could it be that Administrators control the funds???? Why can we not all start off in the same pay scale and work your way up the scales then the negotiators only have one pay rise to negotiate.

I can hear the howls of derision already.

How many people out there have done the sums and realise that the negotiated pay rise is not as good as it looks with inflation running so high. I don’t buy the fact that there is a lack of money available that is a cop out and our team need to renegotiate and at least get whatever back dated to the Feb date as agreed.

Rant over for a while await the discussions.

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Comment by John Ferguson on September 5, 2011 at 11:58am: The good thing about the meeting today in Whakatane is that they did not vote on the increase in the subs, the only person that mentioned it was me when talked about the non pay rise that we are getting.. Does that mean that they cannot raise the subs?

Comment by John Ferguson on September 5, 2011 at 11:54am: Well there were more who voted for it than those that voted against. I stood up and talked but in the end was not allowed to finish what I wanted to say. Good morning to those at the head shed that are monitoring me, hope you enjoy. What was said was not right in many instances.... why are the union so anti the National party, it is with disgust that I have to listen to people telling me who to vote for, the meeting was not the forum for that discussion. I wish you luck in your new ventures I dont think I will be walking along side you. You have done yourselves no favours in what you are trying to do. Next time I speak with AnneTolley I will once again discuss what is happening in the education sector, she does listen and is very ameneable to talking to people either in her office or as in last weekend in the Memorial hall in Whakatane. For those who voted for the pay deal you reap what you sow.

Comment by John Ferguson on September 3, 2011 at 3:52pm: Why oh why would I vote for a 1.5% pay rise it is an insult to one and all. I would rather laeve the union and save mtyself more money that they can give me in a pay rise. That is the same reason I would not recruit any of the support staff that are not members I would be lying to them telling them how good the union is. It is sad that people think 1.5%is a good pay rise and worth paying a union over the odds to get us that much.

Comment by Chic McConkey on September 2, 2011 at 9:44pm: if you say NO which is your choice which way you vote there is NO guarantee you will get more and also you will miss out on the 1.5% which will be payable in Sept once settlement is ratified .Anne Tolley told us at annual meeting they wouldnt pay support staff from central funding as teachers are. her staright answer when asked was NO .we need to get more support staff to jopin the union . 95% teachers belong to the union so they have a big voice and governemt listens more . get out recruit get support staff joined up so we get a bigger voice . government look at numbers attending meetings numbers of support staff that are members .

Comment by Chic McConkey on September 2, 2011 at 9:37pm: well if you have been doing a job for 6 yrs that comes under scale A and on step 2 that is something you take up with your school your principal BOT ...or phone the HELP line . explain to them they will tell you what steps to take with your principal BOT

Comment by John Ferguson on September 2, 2011 at 2:36pm: 8 to 14 years they do much better than associate scale because we dont go any higher than 8 years. One of the jobs that I do is in scale A been doing it for 6 years now and still only on step 2. Setting machines for $14.62 an hour I must want my head read.

Comment by Margaret Stormont on September 2, 2011 at 2:05pm: I think you will find that Admin staff are mostly stuck in Grade B and don't get a fair deal either.

I have been an NZEI member foraround 17 years and have been active in the Franklin area for NZEI. But after this lot of negotiations I feel really disheartened at NZEI trying to sell us the negotiated agreement as a 4% raise and publishing it to the media as a boost for support staff wages. The primary teachers got 3% straight out not spread over 3 years plus a cash payout.

For years I have been pushing that nothing will happen until support staff are centrally funded like teachers.

What would happen if support staff downed tools for a few days - it would be interesting!

Comment by Tim Funnell on September 1, 2011 at 3:51pm: I have had a talk to a PPTA member and it looks like the deal the minitry gave us is very similar to the one PPTA got. Percentages very similar to ours and over a 3 year period. I wouldn't be surprised if the Primary Teachers got the same deal. So I wouldn't hold out for much more. All the national government are interested in doing is taking money from the state schools and giving it to private schools so their kids get a better education, in theory. And with the governments attatude towards us (they don't know what we do) we will have a hard job convincing the ministry of giving us a fairer deal. Don't get me wrong I deplore the whole deal. If we say no to the offer and the negotiating team has another go. Will we still get the offer we turned down? I would suggest that we accept but send the team back and keep negotiating if that is posible. I think that the only way we can get some where is to make sure this government doesn't get bacl in and take our chances with a new government, but looking at the poles we have a big battle ahead

Comment by John Ferguson on September 1, 2011 at 2:41pm: Well the kindergarten teachers have refused to acceot the ir pay deal so that means it will not be a precedent when we turn it down. Think long and hard about which way you vote on this.

Comment by John Ferguson on August 30, 2011 at 10:22am: Hi Dee. Let us know what the feeling is at the meeting. ours is on the 5th. Any fresh information would be good as there does not seem to be much coming out of the head shed. With all the members on this site and the feelings that are running there seems to be very few talking about what has happened, perhaps more people need to read and share their views.