Primary teachers say no thanks to new offer
Primary teachers and principals are ‘‘resolute in their determination’’, choosing to reject the Ministry of Education’s latest pay offers and raising the spectre of fresh strike action.
A secret ballot has seen New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa members deliver a ‘‘resounding’’ no to the revised offer put forward on September 11.
In an email to members yesterday, NZEI president Lynda Stuart said the offers did not do enough to address ‘‘growing issues around workload, recruitment and retention of teachers and learning support’’.
NZEI representatives would consider feedback at their annual conference in Rotorua, starting on Sunday.
A recommendation will then be made to the national executive about what NZEI does when term four begins next month. If further strike action is recommended, another secret ballot will be held.
‘‘The Government keeps saying we have to be patient, and they can’t fix everything at once, but the teacher shortage is at crisis point. If you think it’s expensive trying to fix a crisis, just wait to see how hard it is to turn around a disaster,’’ Stuart said in a media release.
Secondary school teachers union (PPTA) president Jack Boyle said he was not surprised by the outcome, saying the latest offer did not appear to address NZEI members’ concerns.
NZ Principals’ Federation president Whetu Cormick said he believed the ministry would have to better address resourcing issues to resolve the standoff, with strikes or rolling stoppages seen as the ‘‘worst-case scenario’’.
Acting Education Minister Tracey Martin expressed her disappointment, saying the morethan-half-a-billion-dollar offer was ‘‘worth more than the three settlements combined under the previous National government’’.
Rejection of the ministry’s revised offer yesterday followed a one-day strike where thousands of people rallied up and down the country on August 15.
The industrial action, which affected more than 460,000 students, was in response to dissatisfaction over the previous offer tabled in June.
The revised deal put forward a fortnight ago was in response to criticism June’s offer was weighted too heavily in favour of new teachers.
But instead of placating concerns, many principals and teachers publicly panned the deal which offered little movement on the key issues of reducing workloads and class sizes.
The new deal would have seen entry-level teachers who currently start on $47,980 move up each year to an eventual starting point of $53,429 in 2020.
Teachers at the top end of the scale would have seen staggered salary rises from $75,949 to $82,992 in 2020.