Secondary Teachers Take More Industrial Action As New Term Begins

A new school term begins tomorrow (Monday 24 April) and secondary teachers are set to take more industrial action in support of their collective agreement negotiations.

“We would much prefer to be beginning the term in a settled environment but after 11 months of negotiations we haven’t been able to make satisfactory progress on some major issues,” says Kieran Gainsford, a member of PPTA Te Wehengarua negotiating team.

“There is a worsening shortage of secondary teachers, and we need salary rates and conditions that will keep teachers in the classroom, attract graduates to choose secondary teaching as a career, and encourage former teachers to return to the job they love.

“Every day the collective agreement remains unsettled, the further our pay and conditions slip backward and the more difficult it is to encourage people to stay in teaching or to come teaching. It is fantastic and incredibly important work, but it needs to be valued appropriately. Our rangatahi need specialist teachers for every subject and they need kaiako who can bring their best selves to the job through manageable workloads.”

From tomorrow PPTA Te Wehengarua members in secondary and area schools around the country will continue to refuse giving up their scheduled planning and marking time to relieve for absent teachers or positions that are vacant. They will also not attend meetings outside regular school hours.

From next week, they plan to not teach different year levels of students on certain days, known as rostering home.

In the third week of term (week beginning 8 May), PPTA Te Wehengarua members plan to strike on different days in different regions, starting down south and finishing up north.

PPTA Te Wehengarua and the Ministry of Education have been directed into facilitation, which involves a continuation of negotiations but facilitated by a member of the Employment Relations Authority.

“The Authority, in its decision to direct us to facilitated bargaining, acknowledged that potential constraint of the Public Sector Pay Adjustment on any pay offer from the Ministry appeared to be a key feature of why agreement on remuneration had not been possible so far,” says Kieran Gainsford.

“We’re hopeful that having an independent facilitator will enable us to break through this impasse and avert further industrial action.”

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