PPTA Agrees To Mediation

28 March 2002

The Post Primary Teachers’ Association has agreed to enter mediation with the Ministry of Education in a bid to move forward on a new secondary teachers’ collective agreement.

PPTA president Jen McCutcheon said today PPTA would enter mediation with the Ministry next Thursday and Friday, April 4th and 5th. The following week had also been set aside for mediation if required.

“We lodged our initial claim on March 12, 2001. That’s over a year ago and still we have no settlement,” Mrs McCutcheon said.

“We are hopeful that mediation will help us move forward towards a collective agreement that will benefit all of our 14,000 members and assist in recruitment and retention. That’s what we want,” she said.

Mrs McCutcheon said PPTA negotiators had always been prepared and willing to continue with negotiations.

“We were disappointed with Trevor Mallard’s decision this week to withdraw from negotiations because of wildcat action and we hope the mediation will allow us to negotiate further,” she said.

“Mr Mallard said in the media this week that teaching was one of the most important jobs in the country and the future of this country depended on high quality teachers. We agree and we hope Mr Mallard can translate his words into action with a decent collective agreement for secondary teachers.”

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