Support Staff in Schools' Collective Agreement

This document sets out the agreed components of the settlement of the Support Staff in Schools Collective Agreement (SSSCA) 2019-2022 and Kaiārahi i te Reo, Therapists', ATSSD, Special Education Assistants' Collective Agreement (KRCA) 2019-2022.

This agreement has been settled between the Secretary for Education and the New Zealand Educational Institute Te Riu Roa (NZEI Te Riu Roa) and E tū. It shall be subject to ratification by NZEI Te Riu Roa and E tū members pursuant to section 51 of the Employment Relations Act 2000.

The terms outlined in this document are valid for ratification by NZEI Te Riu Roa and E tū provided ratification is confirmed and the new collective agreement is signed no later than 3 pm 13 December 2019.

1. Term

The Support Staff in Schools’ and Kaiārahi i te Reo, Therapists', ATSSD, Special Education Assistants' Collective Agreements shall be effective from 13 December 2019 to 6 February 2022.

2. Remuneration

The parties agree that the increases will take effect from 29 November 2019, and 27 November 2020 respectively.

In the Support Staff in Schools’ Collective Agreement:

• Pay rates for grade A, grade B, grade C and grade D (SSSCA clause 3.2.2)

Below is the table outlining the changes to the printed rates for grade A, grade B, grade C and grade D including merging the current steps 1 through 8 into the new step 1.

• Executive Management Group (SSSCA clause 3.1.1)

The new minimum salary entry point is $77,250 from 29 November 2019 and $79,567 from 27 November 2020.

• Consequential changes

Consequential changes to the SSSCA needed to incorporate the changes to the printed rates have been agreed by the parties.

In the Kaiārahi i te Reo, Therapists', ATSSD, Special Education Assistants' Collective Agreement

• Kaiārahi i te reo and ATSSD ( KRCA clause 3.2)

Below is the table outlining the changes to the rates payable for Kaiārahi i te reo including merging the current steps 1 through 8 into the new step 1.

Below is the table outlining the changes to the rates payable for ATSSD including merging the current steps 1 through 11 into the new step 1. 

• Therapists (KRCA 3.3)

Below is the table outlining the changes to the minimum rates payable for Therapists:

• Special Education Assistants

Below is the table outlining the changes to the rates payable for Special Education Assistants:

• Consequential changes

Consequential changes to the KRCA needed to incorporate the changes to the printed rates have been agreed by the parties.

2. Establishment of a Professional Learning and Development Fund for Teacher Aides

1. The parties note that the Education Accord includes the following commitment:

“How do we develop and deploy a para-professional workforce employed by Boards that supports teaching and learning?

The Ministry and the NZEI are currently involved in detailed work to resolve pay equity issues with these staff. That work will continue. In addition, the roles paraprofessionals may hold, their career pathways and how they are funded (e.g. staffing entitlement or operations grant) will be considered.”

2. The parties have agreed that, pending the detailed outcome from this Education Accord work, it would be useful to establish a transitional pilot teacher aide learning and development fund of $500,000 per annum (inclusive of administration) from 1 July 2020 for the balance of the term of the SSSCA , available from 1 July 2020. For the avoidance of doubt: funding of $500,000 for professional development of teacher aides will be available for the period 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021, and $290,000 available for the period 1 July 2021 to February 2022.

The Professional Learning and Development Fund for Teacher Aides will be enhanced, increasing the fund from $0.790 million to $2.29 million over 18 months with an effective implementation date of 1 July 2020. This fund will support the resourcing of professional development of teacher aides, including but not limited to funding attendance at training and / or professional development opportunities.

3. This pilot will cease at the expiry of this agreement. The pilot will test the range of interest that exists, and the types of PLD which should be funded on a long-term basis as part of the framework developed under the Accord. The evaluation of this pilot will be one of the inputs to the above Accord work, in association with the Education Workforce Strategy and implementation of the Learning Support Action Plan 2019-2025.

4. To this end, the parties have agreed that the Ministry will convene joint work with NZEI Te Riu Roa and NZSTA, between February and June 2020, to establish the way the transitional pilot will work, its focus and priorities.

5. The intention is that, wherever possible, this pilot funding will be used for PLD for teacher aides in term breaks and Christmas/New Year break or otherwise outside of school hours, to provide for salary and to pay course fees.

3. Motor Vehicle Allowance increase (clause 5.1 of the SSSCA and KRCA)

Amend wording to clause 5.1 to align rate to that for teachers and principals. The clause will now read:

“Employees required by their employer to use their own vehicles for school business shall be paid an allowance of $0.62 per kilometre.”

4. Te Matatini Leave

The Ministry has agreed to provide funding of $16,000 for the term of the collective (ie from 13 December 2019 to 6 February 2022), to be administered by NZEI Te Riu Roa, to offer paid leave for support staff and Kaiārahi i te reo who participate in Te Matatini.

The parties and NZSTA will determine the eligibility criteria, administration of the fund, and guidance for employers and employees within 60 days of ratification.

5. Health and Safety and Wellbeing

Health and Safety:
Amend wording to clause 7.2 as detailed in Annex 4. This new wording encourages increased support staff participation in their school’s health and safety culture.

Wellbeing:
The Ministry is committed to ongoing work on wellbeing with the education sector under the Education Accord which includes implementation of a wellbeing framework and associated tools and resources.

6. Renaming of Dirty Work Allowance (5.5 of the KRCA and 5.4 of the SSSCA)

Amend the name of the “Dirty Work Allowance” to “Tiaki Allowance”.

7. Changes to Overnight Allowance (clause 5.5 in SSSCA and 5.4 KRCA)

Amend wording in the SSSCA to clause 2.4.5 and 5.5 as detailed in Annex 4.

Amend wording in the KRCA to clause 5.4 as detailed in Annex 5.

The Ministry and NZSTA will ensure guidance is made available for boards as to how they can meet their obligations to ensure all support staff and kaiārahi are correctly paid in relation to this clause, which reflects the requirements of the Minimum Wage Act 1983 and relevant case law.

8. Administrative and Kaiārahi Pay Equity Claim Terms of Reference

The parties are committed to agreeing to sign a Terms of Reference for the Administrative and Kaiārahi Pay Equity Claims.

9. Amalgamation of the SSSCA and KRCA

The parties note the Ministry’s claim for amalgamation of the SSSCA and KRCA.

The parties have agreed to convene a joint working group within six months of expiry of the SSSCA and KRCA, to further investigate and consult around this proposal.

The parties will develop appropriate principles to shape this work prior to the commencement of the working group.

The Ministry, NZEI Te Riu Roa and NZSTA will advise representatives in due course.

10. Related Matters

An Individual Employment Agreement (IEA) will be promulgated by the Secretary for Education on the date the collective agreement is ratified (i.e. 13 December 2019).

The new pay rates will be effective from the date of promulgation for those employees who were employed on the day the IEA is promulgated, if the IEA is signed on or before 29 February 2020.

For employees who sign the IEA after 29 February 2020 the new pay rates will be effective from the date the IEA is signed by the employee.

11. Technical amendments

• Family Violence Leave (new 6.12 KRCA) (new 6.11 SSCA)

The parties agree to add the following wording in 6.11 in the SSSCA and 6.12 in the KRCA:

“Family Violence Leave
Family Violence Leave as provided for by the Holidays Act 2003 is in addition to other leave allowance within the collective agreement.”

• Other technical amendments

Such other technical amendments to the text of the collective agreement as may be mutually agreed by the parties.

Signed in Wellington on 29 November 2019:

Alexandra Davies
Advocate
for NZEI Te Riu Roa

Advocate
for E tū

Tim Day and Nicole Williams
Advocates
for the Secretary for Education

Witnessed:
Jonathan Fairclough
for the New Zealand Schools Trustees Association

Ministry of Education/NZEI Te Riu Roa (NZEI) Terms of Reference for NZEI Teacher Aide Pay Equity Claim

Parties

The parties to these Terms of Reference are the Ministry of Education (Ministry), NZEI Te Riu Roa (NZEI), E tū, and the New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA).

Context

As part of the settlement of the Support Staff in Schools’ Collective Agreement 2017-2019, the parties agreed to participate in a pay equity process covering the work of teacher aides. 

This agreement is further to an exchange of letters between the State Services Commission (SSC), and the Council Trade Unions (NZCTU) in January/February 2017, and subsequent Terms of Reference agreed between the SSC and CTU “Addressing Identified Pay Equity Claims in the State Sector”, dated 9 May 2017. 

The parties have agreed to progress the claim by applying the Government approved principles for addressing pay equity claims, supplemented by the further details on the process for this claim set out in these Terms of Reference. 

Work Programme and Timelines

The parties have agreed to adopt an indicative work programme and timeline for this claim (Annexe 1) which is aspirational in nature, and which will be reviewed at identified checkpoints, to confirm or vary the expectations on the time required to complete future work, based on experience to date.

Scope

The Ministry and NZEI agree that the claim is for teacher aides and those doing the same or similar work. The designation “teacher aide” is long-standing in schools and potentially covers a number of different roles with a range of work and responsibilities decided at the employer level.   Accordingly the parties have agreed to investigate and further define the scope of the claim [Defining the range of roles within scope of the claim] in Annexe 1 refers.

This will require an environmental scan of current existing role information held by employers, to be achieved by surveying employers in the first instance. 

This process will inform the later interview design process, by identifying indicative roles present across the sector, and will inform the number of interviews required for each identified role. 

Merit

The parties agree that merit in terms of the Principles will be discussed during the period to mid-October 2017 following an analysis and discussion of information provided by NZEI in the first instance. 

The parties may agree at any time during the discussion of merit, and the process of defining the range of roles within scope of the claim, that this claim will not continue in respect of any group of employees or roles(s).    

The parties also agree that the initial determination of merit of the pay equity claim for teacher aides is one of “merit to proceed”. The Assessing the claim process [Steps 4 to 9 of Annexe 1] will then enable consideration of the pay equity claim (ie the assessment of work and comparable work, and remuneration and comparable remuneration and reward) before the Ministry determines whether it agrees there is in fact gender-based systemic historical and continuing undervaluation of the work and before the parties discuss whether any adjustment in remuneration is needed as a result of the assessment of the claim.

Assessing the Claim

There are six broad steps involved in assessing the claim. 

• Consider undervaluation

This step will involve consideration of evidence to be provided by NZEI of both historical and continuing undervaluation. 

• Thorough assessment of work covered by claim

This will require the development of template Job Descriptions (JDs), based on the conduct and analysis of interviews of a statistically valid sample of employees/the person(s) who directs the employee’s daily work/their direct reports and principals/Board Chairs for each identified role. The parties may agree that others should be interviewed as appropriate.  

The interview process will ensure that primary, secondary, intermediate, decile, geographic and grade factors are all able to be considered in the assessment process.

Matching employees to newly specified roles

It is intended that employers will consider and confirm applicable role(s) for all staff in scope, and inform the Ministry accordingly. 

• Assessing the roles

This will require the parties to agree the detail of the assessment process, and to apply it to the JD templates developed from the previous steps.  The end result will be a set of newly defined, assessed roles. 

• Comparator process

The parties will identify and agree comparators, and the Ministry will approach the comparator organisations to seek to gain agreement to participate/provide comparator JDs. 

Comparator role holders will be interviewed.  The end result will be a template JD in the same format/level of specificity of that of the teacher aide JD, approved as accurate by the comparator employer.

The comparator job content will be assessed, using the same assessment process as used for the teacher aide JDs.  

• Remuneration analysis and comparisons

The reasons behind and basis for the remuneration and other terms and conditions of employment of the comparator(s) will be thoroughly examined. 

A report will be produced which will draw conclusions and recommendations.  This report will inform bargaining for settlement.

Bargaining for Settlement

The parties will bargain in good faith to settle the pay equity claim, informed by the above report.  The parties to the bargaining will endeavour to ensure that bargaining is not delayed unnecessarily and is conducted in an efficient and constructive manner.

Indicative Timeline

The indicative timeline is attached as Annexe 1.

Management of the process

The parties commit to a constructive, efficient and effective process and will meet as agreed to review progress. 

The parties will meet at the agreed check-points mid-October and the week of 18 to 22 December 2017, and by 31 March and 31 May 2018, to review progress and agree to any necessary variances to the indicative timeline. 

In the event of a disagreement, the parties acknowledge that dispute resolution processes are available, including mediation through the Employment Relations Service or the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, or a mediator agreed by the parties.  If mediation is unsuccessful, the parties may agree to progress dispute resolution through the Employment Relations Authority.

The parties note that unions ultimately reserve the right to revert back to the legal process under existing law.

Communications

The parties recognise the importance of preserving the integrity of the Principles pending legislation and agree to manage communications while working through a pay equity claim accordingly, and specifically:

• During negotiation of the pay equity claim each party’s communications will comply with the principles of good faith and the provisions of the ERA.  Each party will recognise the right of the other to communicate with members or employees via normal channels of communication.
• At the end of each pay equity meeting, parties will agree key messages for any internal and external communications.
• Approaches from the media regarding a pay equity claim may require either party to respond within short timeframes.  In this situation parties will use best endeavours to maintain a ‘no surprises’ approach.

Dated this 17^th day of July 2017

Signed:

Nick Kyrke-Smith
for Secretary for Education

Alexandra Davies
for General Secretary NZEI Te Riu Roa

Paul Tolich
for General Secretary E tū

Rob Gold
for Chief Executive NZ School Trustees Association

Background

1.  During negotiations to settle the Support Staff in Schools Collective Agreement 2017-2019 (SSSCA) and the Kaiarahi i te Reo, Therapists’, Assistants to Teachers of Students with Severe Disabilities and Special Education Assistants’ Collective Agreement 2017-2019 (KRCA) the parties agreed to establish a Joint Forum to enable ongoing discussion of professional and industrial issues.  A number of matters were raised which the parties agreed to refer to that forum.

Parties to the Forum

2. The parties to the Forum are the Ministry of Education (MoE), the NZEI Te Riu Roa (NZEI), and the New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA), acting by and through their delegated appointees.

Aims

3. The purpose of the Joint Forum is to enable the parties to continue to progress work on issues of mutual concern through a MoE/NZEI/NZSTA Joint Forum to be convened by NZSTA. This process will inform future negotiations.

4. The core aims are to:

1. Develop career pathways for school support staff both in their own schools, and in the context of Kāhui Ako (Communities of Learning)
2. Investigate, develop, and promote access to and recognition of quality assured qualifications for school support staff.
3. Engage with the relevant Industry Training Organisation to explore, develop and recognise on job and off job qualification, relevant to career pathways for support staff.
4. Develop and promote guidance on professional development opportunities which support the emerging career pathways both in communities of learning and their own schools.
5. Investigate and assess aspects of the ongoing operation of the current remuneration system.
6. Enable, by agreement, other relevant matters of mutual interest and concern to be discussed and progressed.
7. The Forum will also specifically:
1. Review and develop NZSTA’s draft proposed guidelines on the operation of cl.2.5 Variation of Hours
2. Review and agree how to progress the outstanding recommendations (to be agreed) from previous reports (MoE/NZEI Support Staff Workstream Report and MoE/NZEI/NZSTA “Collectively Making Resources Count” report);

Outcomes and timelines

5. Indicative timelines are as follows:

1. Develop approaches to the role of Support Staff in Communities of Learning | Kāhui Ako. This process includes but is not limited to:
1. Investigating and reporting on
1. how support staff are currently being utilised, and on how schools would like to utilise them,  within communities of learning and
2. approaches to and opportunities for support staff in communities of learning
2. finalising and disseminating an agreed final version of the draft Best Practice Guide: Support Staff in Communities of Learning [15 December 2017]
2. Develop guidance on professional career pathways for school support staff, including professional development opportunities and qualifications [tbc]. This process includes but is not limited to:
1. A stocktake on current professional development opportunities and qualifications for school support staff [December 2017
2. Investigation of quality assured professional development opportunities and qualifications which support School Support Staff career pathways [during the term of the agreements]
3. Collaboration with and support for relevant Industry Training Organisation(s) to scope, investigate, develop and promote the availability and provision of on-job and off-job quality assured industry qualifications relevant to support staff career pathways [during the term of the agreements
3. Investigate and assess the ongoing operation of the current remuneration system, including but not limited to :
1. The operation of the indicators language contained in section 3.4 (the position elements table)
2. The grading of roles  and how those grading’s may be reassessed
4. Other aspects of guidance by agreement, as issues arise

  As part of this process the forum will refresh the Best Practice 2015 guidance on the remuneration system [March 2018

Process

6. Forum discussions will:

1. allow each party to identify issues, priorities and desired outcome
2. where possible, reach a consensus.

7. Where it has not been possible to reach a consensus, any party reserves the right to publish materials which reflect their view.

Communications

8. Agreed joint updates about the work of the Forum may be developed for the NZEI Te Riu Roa, E tū and NZSTA to share with their constituents, as agreed between the parties. 

9. Any media or public communications concerning these discussions will be agreed between all of the parties. 

Resourcing

10. All parties will ensure that they will dedicate sufficient resource to these discussions and will complete any agreed work within agreed timeframes.

11. The New Zealand School Trustees Association will act as convenor of the Forum and will provide the secretariat.

Signed in Wellington on 16 June 2017

Alexandra Davies
Executive Officer - Industrial
NZEI Te Riu Roa

Jill Ovens
Industry Co-ordinator - Public and Commercial
E tū

Rob Gold
Principal Adviser - Employment
NZSTA

Nick Kyrke-Smith
Associate Deputy Secretary Early Learning and Student Achievement (Acting)
for Secretary for Education

DATED this 13th day of December 2019

For and on Behalf of [Employer]

…………………………………………………
Tim Day and Nicole Williams
Senior Advisers, Employment Relations for the Secretary for Education

For and on Behalf of [Unions]

…………………………………………………
Alexandra Davies
Executive Officer - Industrial for the New Zealand Educational Institute – Te Riu Roa

………………………………………………
Paul Tolich
Senior National Industrial Officer for the E tū

Witnessed By

………………………………………………
Jonathan Fairclough
for the New Zealand School Trustees Association