Taskforce Makeup Insult To Tech Teachers
“Technology and other teachers feel insulted that the same group of people who caused the disparity in pay between
degreed and non-degreed teachers have been appointed to fix the problem,” Maggie Lovekin, spokesperson for the Pay
Disparity group said today. She was commenting on the announcement by Trevor Mallard regarding the first meeting of the
Ministerial Taskforce on Renumeration in Secondary Schools.
“The fact is the PPTA and the Minister have chosen to assign the responsibility of fixing pay disparity to the very same
people who have created the problem to allow the Government to break its promise of primary pay parity. Ex-PPTA
President McCutcheon is even on record as telling these teachers to ‘get a degree’,” said Maggie Lovekin. “ We are being
asked to trust the people who opened the barn door wide. We are to trust that they will bring the horse back in top
order and rebuild a sparkling new stable – not!”
“None of our members have any faith that people like Dame Margaret Bazley or McCutcheon can resolve the issue.
Technology teachers have therefore no confidence that the Ministerial Taskforce will solve the problem and again call on
both the Union and the Minister to reopen the CEA and address the issues raised by the non-degree teachers by 21 March,”
said Maggie Lovekin.
Maggie Lovekin said that their second demand was for the current President of the PPTA Phil Smith to be included in the
Taskforce panel.
”Finally, with a reporting date of 31 October 2003 for the Taskforce, Technology Teachers demand a commitment to
backdating to February 2002 in the event the Taskforce finally faces its responsiblities and addresses the inequity of
the current situation for G3 = teachers.”