Teachers’ prior service not taken into account

FORMER teachers working at the Education Ministry are angry the ministry is refusing to count their teaching service when calculating redundancy entitlements.

RNZ understands secretary for education Iona Holsted has discretion to count up to five years’ prior teaching service when considering staff for severance. However, staff have been told she is using that discretion to not recognise that service during the current round of proposed cuts. RNZ understands the ministry is recognising prior service in other government ministries. The decision will affect former school teachers who left their teaching jobs to take up roles in the ministry, such as assisting with the rollout of NCEA changes.

One ministry staff member said they were angry and the government’s cuts to the ministry would wreck the careers and lives of talented teachers.

Some former teachers moved to the ministry only this year and would receive no redundancy payment because they had worked there for less than 12 months, they said.

The Education Ministry did not explain whether the decision applied to all ministry divisions, and how many staff might be affected.

‘‘The ministry has five collective employment agreements [including the PSA agreement], as well as individual employment agreements for staff whose roles are not under coverage of a union,’’ it said in a statement. ‘‘We are adhering to the contractual provisions of our employment agreements.

‘‘We continue to work with individuals and their representatives to respond to queries about contractual provisions and how they apply.’’

It had proposed cutting 755 roles, including 316 that were vacant.

Some of the cuts proposed in its curriculum centre were because of the postponement of changes to the NCEA, and were not in response to the government’s order for a 7.5% cut to spending, the ministry said.

The Public Service Association said it was aware of the situation and was seeking legal advice. Meanwhile, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s annual survey this week said schools needed more support from the Education Ministry — a recommendation similar to that made to the former Labour government by the Tomorrow’s Schools review of the school system in 2018. ‘‘The system seems to be missing a sufficiently deep and well enough funded intermediate support layer to help schools and teachers put policy into action, design detailed curriculum guides and assessments and deliver them as well as spreading best practices more generally,’’ the report said.