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Negotiations drag on for four pay deals

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 year-long 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 with the ministry.

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.

Secondary

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, which it described as not ‘‘good enough’’.

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 payment 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 with the Employment Relations Authority.

Voting closes this evening with the national executive to meet to consider the results and decide the next steps.

Secondary principals, represented by the Secondary Principals’ Associations of New Zealand and Secondary Principals’ Council unions, 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.

Primary teachers

Primary teachers represented by NZEI announced they had accepted their fourth collective offer yesterday.

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 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.

NZEI is seeking to talk with the minister next week. Principals represented by the Primary Principals Collective Bargaining Union, about 15% of all primary principals, settled with the ministry 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 allowance to 15 days, introduced a cultural allowance for kaiako Māori and provided more head teacher professional time.

National News

en-nz

2023-06-08T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-06-08T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282226605120810

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