Primary School Teachers on Strike Again
More than 100,000 primary school students in Auckland did not attend school yesterday as teachers and principals walked off the job for the second time this year.
It was the start of a week of rolling one-day strikes around the country, after the collapse of contract negotiations last Thursday. Several rallies were held across the city. The Ministry of Education last week offered NZ$129 million (FJ$183.8m) more, taking the pay offer to almost NZ$700m (FJ$997.8m) over four years, but it was turned down.
The Employment Relations Authority called the union’s claim totally unrealistic and the Education Minister, Chris Hipkins, said there won’t be any more money.
Last-ditch negotiations last week which yielded an improved pay offer from the Ministry of Education was not enough to avert the industrial action, which followed a national strike in August, and the rejection of a second offer last month. At the corner of Ponsonby Road and Great North Road in Central Auckland, about 50 teachers gathered, saying the government’s offer was “too little, too late”.
The teachers held signs and waved banners, which read “Our kids deserve better”.
One of the striking teachers, Kim Hankins, from Newton Central Primary, said teachers’ workdload were “just ridiculous”.
“I would estimate half of the teachers are planning to get out of teaching. The offer is too little too late. There aren’t enough people out there wanting to be teachers. We need people wanting to come into the profession and that’s not happening at the moment.”
The government’s offer included an increase to most teachers’ pay by 9 per cent over three years, a new top of the pay scale from 2020, an a NZ$500 lump sum for union members only. Newton Central Primary principal, Riki Teteina, said the government had come a long way to address teacher’s concerns, there was still a way to go.
“It’s still very difficult for teachers, and also we have a massive teacher shortage and none of these things are actually going to address that primary issue,” he said.
“I’ve been involved in international education and there are thousands of New Zealand teachers who are overseas, and it’s because here they felt undervalued, underpaid and overworked. This offer is not going to change that tide and that’s a big concern for me.”
Union members will vote on the latest offer later this month.