Kindergarten relief teachers aren't being paid in lockdown because their government-funded employers can't afford it.
File photo. Photo: 123rf
Employers aren't obliged to pay their relief staff and don't have enough money to, meaning the relievers have gone weeks without an income.
Susan*, a kindergarten relief teacher, was keen to get back to work in mid-August; she'd been off sick for a few weeks.
She's the breadwinner for her family and if she doesn't work, she doesn't get paid.
When the country was plunged into lockdown she lost her income overnight.
Susan's not being paid by her employer, a regional government-funded kindergarten trust, because she isn't working.
"We hear from many, many avenues how important relievers are but when it comes down to a situation like this, it feels to me like we just don't matter."
Susan's only option for support is to apply for a benefit. She can't access the wage subsidy because she's employed by the publicly funded trust.
But instead of the benefit, she's choosing to live off retirement savings.
"I felt reluctant to do that because I know there are a lot of people out there that have got absolutely no money and rely desperately on that to get by... I just felt it wasn't fair for me to go and try and get money that way that could be better used for people that are in desperate need."
Caroline, another early childhood relief teacher, was paid for the shifts she had booked during the first week of lockdown but now her income has run dry.
She's employed by a government-funded regional Kindergarten association and is struggling to get an explanation about why she can't be paid during the lockdown.
"Nothing is being done so far to support early childhood relievers and I thought that was just going to be while they got their ducks in a row, but we've heard from the ministry and there is no payment coming our way and it doesn't make sense to me."
Caroline is considering leaving the sector.
"I don't know if I can sustain being a kindergarten reliever in the future if it means that I'm not going to get supported in the same way that other relievers are."
The Education Minister's advice for kindergartens that get government funding is to use that money to support teachers and relief staff during the lockdown.
The chief executive of New Zealand Kindergartens Jill Bond says that's not realistic.
"The reason that we use relief teachers is to cover absence of a permanent teacher, so, in effect, if we were to pay them but they weren't working we're doubling our salary costs which we simply cannot afford to do."
The association has tabled the problem with the Secretary for Education Iona Holsted and Minister Chris Hipkins.
"We have raised this as an anomaly between the early childhood sector and the compulsory sector, where a special fund has been created to pay those relief teachers in the compulsory sector during Covid-19 lockdowns."
That fund compensates school relievers for the average hours they would work per week.
Council of Trade Unions president Richard Wagstaff says the scheme needs to be rolled out in the early childhood education sector too.
"We think that there's an opportunity to do something like that in the early childhood sector and talk to the sector about how can they get emergency support for this large, large work force who have been casualised, but nonetheless we all rely on them to do their job."
The Education Minister Chris Hipkins wasn't available for an interview.
In a statement he said kindergartens run independently of the government and are responsible for their own operational costs, so it's not appropriate to replicate the school relief teacher payment.
He suggested relief teachers for kindergartens contact MSD about support available to them.
*RNZ has changed some names and removed locations to protect identities.