Teachers declare latest offer ‘needs improvement’

Tens of thousands of primary and area school teachers from across Aotearoa have rejected pay offers made by the Ministry of Education.

A poll of members from the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa union shows teachers ‘‘unequivocally voted’’ against settling their collective agreements.

‘‘The teacher meetings were robust and frank and pretty much unanimous in telling the Government that their offer needs improvement,’’ NZEI Te Riu Roa president Liam Rutherford said.

It comes as tens of thousands more secondary and primary teachers around the country prepare to announce their decision this coming week. NZEI Te Riu Roa members covered by collective agreements for primary and area school teachers, principals and kindergarten teachers met over the past two weeks to discuss and vote on the offers made.

Rutherford said it was clear teachers were ‘‘frustrated and disappointed’’. Many felt the Government wasn’t listening.

He said the pay component of the offer did not meet the rising cost of living, with the Reserve Bank last week bringing more bad news.

The offer also failed to address concerns around reducing classroom ratios, fixing funding for learning support, reducing work demands and giving teachers ‘‘time to teach’’.

Wellington-based primary teacher Carl Pynenburg said the offer didn’t feel like it recognised the additional challenges teachers had responded to during the pandemic.

Pynenburg, who has been a teacher for eight years, voted against accepting the offer after asking himself ‘‘will this make a practical difference for me or my kids?’’.

He said there was also ‘‘no real movement’’ around release time and the non-contact time which helped teachers to find new ways of supporting tamariki.

There was also a lack of information about steps for learning support, he said.

‘‘Having that support available at an early age can make such a difference.’’

He said it was ‘‘heartbreaking’’ to see colleagues leave because the workload was too high and costs were creeping in.

Union members have also discussed plans for future action if the offer does not improve following further negotiations. The ballot for primary and area-school principals was to close yesterday with results to be announced tomorrow. Union meetings for kindergarten teachers finish on Thursday.

Last week, members of the Secondary Principals’ Associations of New Zealand (SPANZ) Union agreed to the offer, with twothirds of its membership voting in favour of ratification.

About 20,000 secondary teachers represented by Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua are set to attend paid union meetings this week.

Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua president Melanie Webber said they would be calling on members to endorse the executive team’s decision to ‘‘reject the offer outright’’.

‘‘We need collective agreements that contain salaries and conditions that will help stem the worsening shortage of subject specialist teachers in our high schools and area schools,’’ she said. ‘‘We need salaries and conditions that will attract people into secondary teaching and keep existing teachers in the profession.’’

The union has been calling for a cost of living-adjusted pay increase, significantly more teachers in schools and workload controls. An offer for a new collective agreement included a $4000 pay increase in the first year with a $2000 increase in the second. There was provision for more staffing but no workload controls.

‘‘We need salaries and conditions that will attract people into secondary teaching and keep existing teachers in the profession.’’

Melanie Webber

Post Primary Teachers Association Te Wehengarua president