Teacher aides deserve higher earnings, unions pressure gov

<h3>Teacher unions wore black and white in support of pay equity on Suffrage Day&comma; urging the Government to commit to a settlement for teacher aides this year&period;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>NZEI Te Riu Roa President Lynda Stuart said New Zealand women had come a long way in the 126 years since winning the right to vote&comma; but the persistent pay gap between female-dominated jobs and comparable male-dominated jobs was an injustice that was taking a long time to put right&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;School teacher aides have been working with the Ministry of Education on this process for several years&comma; but we are optimistic that we can reach a deal by the end of this year&comma;&&num;8221&semi; she said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Teacher aides are highly skilled and have significant responsibilities for students&&num;8217&semi; learning and often their physical care and safety as well&period; Yet&comma; many are earning little more than minimum wage despite years of experience&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>NZEI Te Riu Roa has now completed the assessment of the role of teacher aides and the four comparator groups of male-dominated jobs&period; Work is now underway to set the parameters for pay equity negotiations with government&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Early childhood teachers and employers from Barnardos&comma; Salvation Army and centres covered by the Early Childhood Education collective agreement &lpar;ECECA&rpar; have strengthened their pay equity process by joining together for the next phase of work&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Several potential comparator organisations have been approached to begin the role comparison part of the process&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>NZEI Te Riu Roa is also supporting the Council of Trade Unions&&num;8217&semi; open letter and petition to the Prime Minister&comma; calling on her to make urgent changes to the draft equal pay law that will improve and simplify the settlement process&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;