nathaniel@livingwage.org.nz

If it strikes you as strange that the workers who keep our children warm, safe, and well-fed in our schools are not paid enough to clothe their own children, or to shelter them adequately, or to buy them healthy food - then read on. Cleaners, caretakers, caterers and groundskeepers (CCCG workers) ensure that teachers have somewhere to teach, and that learners have somewhere to learn.

They clean high school toilets, run crowded canteens, and fix whatever needs fixing so that classes run smoothly. Their wages are paid for with Ministry of Education (MoE) dollars, yet nine times out of ten, CCCG workers are not employed by MoE or by their school, and they are not paid a Living Wage. Instead, their work is outsourced to for-profit transnational companies that skim education funding off the top and keep worker pay at rock bottom.

Why Does This Happen? Because We Let It Happen

The Living Wage Movement has launched a campaign to ensure that every worker in the public school system receives at least a Living Wage for their work. The target of this campaign is the Ministry of Education, or more specifically, Minister of Education Erica Stanford. We want Stanford to provide the funding necessary to pay all workers in public education a Living Wage.

We are organising in school communities so that Stanford hears loud and clear from principals, Boards of Trustees, parents, teachers, students and workers that the status quo is unacceptable. Any school can get involved by getting their principal and Board to sign our Living Wage Schools Pledge. The pledge affirms the value of CCCG workers to the school community and calls on central Government to fill the current funding gap.

But more importantly, the pledge is an organising tool. It provides a platform for CCCG workers to share their stories - both the value of their work and the struggle of raising a family on a minimum wage. The pledge is a way of uniting a school community, gaining a shared understanding of the problem, and working together to implement a solution. If it works, we will end up with more than a list of pledges; we will have a coalition of passionate, organised school communities that Minister Stanford cannot ignore. Many schools, as well as community leaders from union, faith and community backgrounds, are already part of the campaign. If you want to get involved, email me (address above).

The Living Wage Pledge:

Watchdog - 165 April 2024