Four still negotiating with Education Ministry

Education reporter Gianina Schwanecke revisits what’s been happening in negotiations between education unions and the Education Ministry and what it might mean for further strike action.

The Ministry of Education may have made progress completing near yearlong negotiations with various education unions, but four collective agreements have yet to been finalised.

Primary teachers are the latest to settle, but their counterparts in secondary, along with area teachers and principals, and primary principals have yet to come to an agreement.

Further strike action could still be on the cards, with the PPTA (Post Primary Teacher’s Association) Te Wehengarua to announce the results of its latest vote later this week.

Post Primary Teachers’ Association Te Wehengarua

Secondary school teachers returned to rostering different year levels home this week – with year 9 students not attending school today – as part of ongoing strike action.

The action had been on pause until the PPTA executive advised its members to reject the latest Government offer.

PPTA members are currently voting on both the latest offer and what further action they would take if members reject the offer.

Acting president Chris Abercrombie earlier said ‘‘This is not something we take lightly. We don’t want to be doing this. We want to be in classrooms teaching. We want to settle.’’

The latest offer included a lump sum of $4500 for union members and three pay rises by December 2024, totalling between 11% and 15.5%.

The general manager for employment relations at the Ministry of Education, Mark Williamson, earlier said the ministry is ‘‘clearly disappointed’’ the PPTA has resumed strike action while its members consider the offer.

If the offer is not accepted, the parties will return to facilitation. Voting closes tonight with the national executive to consider the results and decide the next steps.

Secondary principals settled with the ministry in November and February respectively.

New Zealand Educational Institute Te Riu Roa

Mark Potter, the president of the primary teacher’s union, NZEI Te Riu Roa said the union will continue to push forward on the issues of teacher pay, pay parity for leadership and specialist roles, and improvement in staffing ratios.

‘‘We have the opportunity to further address pay and the undervaluation of teacher work through the . . . pay equity claim that is under way.’’

Primary teachers Primary teachers represented

by NZEI announced yesterday they had accepted their fourth collective offer. It saw pay for starter teachers increase 18.3% (up from $51,358 to $60,735 by December next year) and experienced teachers up to 11% (the top of the scale moving from $90,000 to $100,000 at the end of 2024).

Other details of the offer included an increase in teacher classroom release time for the term, going from 10 hours to 25 hours, a lump sum payment and additional payment for union members, a pay increase in July and further increases in July and December 2024, plus a mileage allowance.

There will also be a significant increase in the Māori Immersion Teacher Allowance and the introduction of the Pasifika Bilingual Immersion Teaching Allowance.

Area school teachers

Despite accepting the offer, area school teachers represented by NZEI will also have to wait until the PPTA (Post Primary Teacher’s Association) Te Wehengarua accept as theirs is a joint collective agreement.

Primary and area school principals

Both primary and area school principals are waiting to receive a new offer, though the work ban has been temporarily suspended.

Principals in the Primary Principals Collective Bargaining Union settled in April.

Kindergarten

Kindergarten teachers voted to accept their latest offer in May.

It included pay increases between 11.1% and 13.9% for union members and the top pay bracket will rise from $90,000 to $100,000 by December 2024. It also increased sick leave and introduced a cultural allowance for kaiako Māori.