15% teacher pay rise floated
A 15 per cent pay rise for secondary educators will help keep people in the profession, the teachers’ union says.
Teacher supply and excessive workloads are the drivers behind the claims the PPTA will take to the Government negotiating table if its members agree.
Hundreds of Waikato teachers – from schools from Te Kauwhata to Te Kuiti – gathered in Claudelands Arena, Hamilton, yesterday to hear PPTA president Jack Boyle run through the proposal.
‘‘We’ve got to make the job manageable and the remuneration competitive. And that’s going to mean the Government is going to have to put its hand very deep into its pocket,’’ he told the crowd.
A 15 per cent pay rise in the first year of settlement would take the top of the teacher pay scale to $89,700 and help make teaching more attractive, he said.
The current approach of rises to match inflation is just not keeping people in the profession and this increase would make the top rate 1.74 times the average median wage.
Boyle also proposed asking for more non-teaching hours to deal with ‘‘administrivia’’, more money attached to management units for those with extra responsibilities, and formal Ma¯ori/ Pasifika community liaison roles. A housing allowance was also proposed to help retain teachers in high-cost areas. It would be a maximum of $100 a week and available to renters or those in their first three years of home ownership.
‘‘The Government, in every forum that they can, has already been telling us ... that they can’t solve nine years of under-funding in one year,’’ he said.
PPTA members voted on the proposed claims while the meeting was closed to media.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins said it would be inappropriate to comment in the lead-up to bargaining.
When the 2018 Budget was announced on May 17, he said it was a major step in the plan to rebuild the schooling system. It included $394.9m in capital funding for new schools and extra classrooms, and $694.4m in operating spending – including money for 1500 new teacher places by 2021.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins silent on teacher claims