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ACC Changes Will Penalise Low Paid School Staff
15th October 2009 For Immediate Release
ACC Changes Will Penalise Low Paid School Support Staff
Proposed
changes to ACC will seriously penalise low paid education
workers according to the education sector union NZEI Te Riu
Roa.
The government is planning to reverse the 2008 income compensations covering casual and part-time workers. It means non-earning periods will once again be taken into account when working out weekly earnings related compensation.
NZEI represents 12,000 frontline school support staff such as teacher aides, librarians and office managers. They are one of the lowest paid workforces in the country and most do not get paid during school holidays. NZEI National Secretary Paul Goulter says the proposed changes to the way ACC payments are calculated will disadvantage them.
“The result will be that if a support staff member gets sick or injured their weekly compensation payment will be dragged down because their average earnings could be based on non-earning periods such as school holidays including the long Christmas break.”
“Many of these workers earn little more than the minimum wage as it is and they are currently victims of the government’s wage freeze policy. This is just another blow at a time when they can least afford it,” says Mr Goulter.
ends
NZEI Te Riu Roa
New Zealand Educational Institute
NZEI Te Riu Roa members work in every community in New Zealand, leading and advocating for quality public education.
We are the 50,000 principals, teachers and support staff who work in primary, area and secondary schools as well as early childhood centres, special education and school advisory services. We come together as NZEI Te Riu Roa - New Zealand's largest education union, a Treaty based organisation and a powerful advocate for quality public education.
We have the most important job in New Zealand - educating for the future.
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