With the Prince George School District receiving $1.26 million from the BC government to hire more teachers and instructors, a local union representative is hoping some of the funds will be put towards education assistants.
Karen Wong is the President of Local CUPE 3742 in PG.
She says she’s been hearing from EA’s that are allegedly struggling.
“And I realized that I’d been hearing the same messages from numerous EA’s in our district. I also hear from the School Board that they can’t hire EA’s; people are applying for the jobs and it’s all kind of tied together with the lack of hours and no living wage.”
She claims it’s important for employees to earn their living wages as education assistants can be easily vulnerable to poor payment.
“Which is a minimum of 30 and really ideally 35 hours a week and that’s not asking for too much. Most people work 40 hours a week and we’re willing to work the hours, we just need to be there.”
#CityOfPG CUPE rep says #SD57 need to standardize 30hrs/week for working EAs; should be regulated, provide living income wages @mypgnow
— Kyle Balzer (@KyleBalzer) February 1, 2017
Wong also says people are applying for the vacant jobs, but the Board is allegedly not paying attention to them.
She says providing EA’s with the right benefits would have a positive impact on themselves and the students.
“It would give the academic education, the support socially, economically, and educationally. I see a win-win situation with stability for the school district, living wages for the EA’s, and support for the students.”
Wong believes allowing them to work full-time and not on a bell-to-bell basis will elevate human resource services.
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