NZEI Teachers And Principals Consider Pay Claims

NZEI Teachers And Principals Consider Pay Claims

More than 20,000 teachers and principals at primary, area, intermediate, special education and kura kaupapa (Maori language) schools are set to attend paid union meetings in school time next week.

NZEI Te Riu Roa has organised 177 two hour meetings that will begin on Monday May 10 and continue for three weeks until Friday May 28. These are part of the negotiation of the collective employment agreements covering the union’s 28,000 members who work as teachers and principals.

After extensive consultation with the teachers and principals the union has formulated a claims package that will be discussed at the meetings. The finalised package that emerges will be presented to the Ministry of Education in June with the negotiations expected to begin in early July.

“This is the largest industrial negotiation in the country. It will determine the working conditions for 28,000 teachers and principals in the primary sector who are responsible for the education of about 480,000 children,” says acting NZEI Te Riu Roa National President, Bruce Adin.

“These negotiations are important for the whole country as teachers’ and principals’ working conditions have a major bearing on children’s learning conditions.”

“NZEI’s claims are designed to enhance the working conditions for teachers and principals in the primary sector which will enhance the learning conditions for the children in those schools.”

These are the major claims in NZEI’s claims package: A 6% pay increase for primary sector teachers. A new pay scale for primary sector principals that would incorporate a 6% pay rise and include steps that delivered yearly pay rises. Pay adjustments that fairly reward teachers for their qualifications and experience. Bring salary unit allocation in primary and area schools into line with secondary schools. Units are annual payments made to teachers for carrying out extra responsibilities. Extra staffing resources to provide teachers with non contact time to carry out in depth planning and assessment.

NZEI has arranged the paid union meetings in school time so teachers and principals can have the time for a full briefing and discussion of the claims package. Under the Employment Relations Act 2000 all union members are entitled to attend two paid union meetings a year.

A full list of the meetings is provided with this release. The meetings are for members to discuss their claims and are not open to the media. Reporters, photographers and camera crew are welcome to attend and to talk to NZEI officials and member representatives before or after the meetings.

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