Strike to go ahead despite pay offer

An end to the impasse between primary and intermediate school teachers and the Ministry of Education doesn’t appear any closer.

Teachers and principals start from today a week-long rolling strike across the country in response to the Ministry of Education’s pay offer. Classrooms will be empty and schools closed in Manawatu¯ tomorrow.

Teachers will gather between 8am and 9am at points in Palmerston North and Feilding to garner support, then they will meet at the Railway Land in Palmerston North and march around The Square.

The action is going ahead despite the Employment Relations Authority strongly recommending on Friday that teachers accept the ministry’s latest offer.

The strike is also going ahead before teachers have voted on the latest offer.

New Zealand Educational Institute president Lynda Stuart said union members would vote on whether to accept the offer – after the strike.

‘‘What we’re trying to do is give membership the opportunity to really say what they think, to really consider this opportunity,’’ she said.

The union and the ministry undertook facilitation led by the Employment Relations Authority. The authority released the outcome of those talks on Friday, saying it ‘‘strongly recommended’’ the union accept the ministry’s package, and the Government had ‘‘clearly gone as far as it will go’’.

The ministry’s package would cost about $700 million over four years.

Most teachers would get between $9500 and $11,000 extra annually in their salaries by 2020.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins said on Friday he was disappointed teachers would still strike without letting union members vote first.

But the strike had long been planned and Wayne Jenkins, principal at Palmerston North’s Ross Intermediate School, did not share Hipkins’ views.

‘‘How the ministry could expect NZEI to not strike when they released the facilitation announcement on Friday afternoon and the strike was due to start on Monday does not make sense,’’ he said.

‘‘We’d rather not do this but, at some point, we’ve got to stand up and say this is bigger than me.’’ Principal Wayne Jenkins

‘‘We’d rather not do this but, at some point, we’ve got to stand up and say this is bigger than me.’’

Jenkins said the ministry had introduced another salary step for teachers in the latest offer but the big problems – teacher workload and class sizes – hadn’t been looked at.

He said if the Government could fix those problems, even gradually, teachers would consider accepting the offer.

The nationwide teacher strikes start in Auckland today.