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Schools Support Staff

School Support Staff undervalued

The New South Wales Department of Education and Training (DET) has refused to recognise the value of work performed by school support staff. Four years after it commissioned a job evaluation review for School and Senior School Assistants, DET has decided it will not fund salary increases.

In 2000 DET asked the Public Service Association (PSA) in NSW to take part in a work review of School Assistants and Senior School Assistants. The review was to address work overload and also evaluate the jobs performed by these classifications. The outcome of the evaluation process recommended significant salary increases to School Assistants and Senior School Assistants.

Four years later the DET is simultaneously agreeing that school support staff deserve more money AND refusing to pay what they are worth. Deserved increases calculated on public service salary rates range between 19% and 74% depending on seniority and experience. In an effort to make it easier for the DET to find the money, the PSA had suggested a 2-step phase in of the increased wages.

"In an extraordinary abrogation of Ministerial responsibility, Refshauge [State Minister for Education] said the PSA should lobby Treasury for the money required. The Deputy Premier and the state's biggest Department are not prepared to tell the Treasurer and Treasury that they need money to pay staff what they are worth. If the Deputy Premier and the senior bureaucrats cannot do that then they are not doing their job and should resign," said Sue Walsh, President of the PSA.

"The delegates are totally outraged, angry and disgusted at the total failure to recognise the value of School Assistants and Senior School Assistants... Adding to members' ire is the knowledge that 99% of school support staff are female. This is another slap in the face for underpaid women" said Ms Walsh.

Delegates representing the School Administrative and Support Staff are recommending strong industrial actions: work to rule, bans and strikes are all under consideration.

For more information see:
http://www.psa.labor.net.au/campaigns/1078961214_25117.html

© 2001 Community & Public Sector Union - State Public Services Federation (CPSU-SPSF) - National Office

http://www.cpsu-spsf.asn.au/latest_news/schools/20040316_pay.html
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005