Specialist staff to strike over pay, workloads

Hundreds of learning support specialists will strike today, placing more pressure on the Ministry of Education to meet the sector’s demands for better pay and lighter workloads.

About 850 psychologists, speech language therapists, and other special education specialists represented by the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) will rally in 18 towns and cities across the country after rejecting the ministry’s pay offer.

NZEI has called the offer of a 2 per cent pay rise upon settlement, and another 2 per cent in March, ‘‘insulting’’.

Ministry deputy secretary Zoe Griffiths acknowledged some of those staff have ‘‘high workloads at the moment’’.

She said the ministry is ‘‘actively working to fill vacancies in areas where there is high demand’’, recruiting about 100 extra specialists for high needs children.

NZEI said the Government needed to ensure specialist staff were available to the growing number of children who needed them.

‘‘There aren’t enough specialists for the children who need the support, and those of us in the job are pushed to our limits with extreme workloads,’’ Byron Sanders, an NZEI negotiator for the specialists, said. ‘‘We need more front-line specialists so all children get the support they need without delay, and we have to ensure specialist staff are paid enough to both recruit and retain their skills for our children.’’

Sanders said the specialists’ vote to strike was ‘‘a clear indication of the anger’’ felt by the sector.

Yesterday NZEI entered its third week of negotiations with the ministry over the collective contracts covering state primary school teachers and principals.

Almost 30,000 teachers went on strike for a day last week. Further strikes are possible if the stalemate cannot be resolved, although NZEI members would have to vote to do so. Further contract negotiations are expected on Thursday.

Louise Green, the principals’ lead negotiator, said the lack of a new offer since June had ‘‘taken its toll on the morale of the negotiating teams’’.

Learning support specialists employed by the Ministry of Education and represented by NZEI will strike but not ministryemployed support workers in early-childhood centres. Those who will take part are educational pyschologists, occupational therapists, earlyintervention teachers, advisers on deaf children, physiotherapists, speech language therapists, special education advisers, traumatic event support staff and kaitakawaenga (Ma¯ ori special education advisers).