Primary teachers to decide on pay offer
Meetings are kicking off across the country this week with primary teachers deciding whether to accept the latest pay offer from the Government – an offer already criticised by the union as falling ‘‘well short’’.
NZEI President Liam Rutherford said last week the offer ‘‘doesn’t look like it will come close to touching the sides of the issues’’ teachers and principals are facing.
Some of those issues he said included requests to reduce class sizes and more funding for support staff, with the ‘‘real pinch point’’ of pay offers being the cost of living.
Conversation he had with members to date was that the offer had fallen ‘‘well short’’.
The paid union meetings will run from November 14 to 25, lasting an hour each. Bargaining began mid-2022. Anna Welanyk, of the Ministry of Education, said it was continuing negotiations with the union ‘‘in good faith and discussing all issues as part of these negotiations’’.
Associate Education Minister Jan Tinetti said in September more than $1.2 billion was spent every year on learning support, the total investment had grown each year since the 2018 Budget and alongside increases to support the learning support action plan, there had been one-off increases to respond to Covid-19 challenges.
It comes as officials and multiple unions are deep in negotiations for pay increases across the public service, with one initial offer on the table of a $6000 increase over two years.
Last week, revealed one of the pay offers from the Public Service Commission made to ‘‘some’’ education and public service unions. The letter was dated as guidance for October 28.
In the letter, the offer for expired collective agreements was for a $6000 base scale increase, on average, over a two-year term. That included a $4000 increase for 2022/23, and a further increase of $2000 after 12 months in the 2023/24 year.
It would increase base scale rates and be dependent on the pay structure in each collective agreement.
Alex Chadwick, of the Public Service Commission, who is leading the pay adjustment taskforce, said at the time it involved multiemployer, multi-union, good-faith bargaining across a number of sectors, including the public service, education, health, defence and police. ‘‘As in any collective bargaining, multiple offers will be exchanged and negotiated . . .’’