Praneeta Mahajan
Hamilton, June 9, 2023
Secondary teachers have voted overwhelmingly to reject the Government’s recent offers for settlement of the secondary and area school teachers’ collective agreements. Secondary teacher union members also voted to continue industrial action.
While the primary teachers settled their contract dispute this week, the union for secondary teachers had been recommending its members reject their offer, which was almost identical to what was accepted by the primary teachers.
“Members have given national executive and the negotiating teams a clear mandate to seek a better offer that meets the pressing needs of secondary education and the secondary teaching profession,” said Chris Abercrombie, PPTA Te Wehengarua acting president.
He said, “When negotiations began more than a year ago we made it clear that secondary teachers needed a pay increase that matched inflation, simply to stop the value of our salaries falling further behind. And we needed some improvements to staffing and other conditions to enable us to concentrate on teaching and learning.
Mr Abercrombie once again emphasised on the core issue, “We have a worsening shortage of secondary teachers. Any school principal will tell you how increasingly difficult it is to fill vacancies. We cannot afford to let pay and conditions slide. Secondary education is the gateway to life opportunities for our rangatahi – it needs to be resourced and valued adequately.”
Mr Abercrombie said he hoped the settlement of the primary teachers’ collective agreement would enable the Government to focus more sharply on the needs of secondary education and find a solution to the impasse.
“Our members are increasingly frustrated at the fact that the demands on teachers are skyrocketing and many teachers are on the brink of leaving, but this is not being acknowledged by the Government in its offers to us.”
What it means
The PPTA Te Wehengarua members have voted on further industrial action for the rest of Term 2 – the next three weeks. They will not teach two year levels per day, they will not use entitled planning and marking time to relieve for absent teachers, and they will not attend meetings or respond to emails outside of regular school hours.
PPTA Te Wehengarua members who are not part of NCEA pilots will not do work related to NCEA changes, including engagement with the Ministry of Education and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.
PPTA members will also not take part in any of their schools’ extracurricular activities on Wednesday 21 June.
Response from the Ministry
The Ministry of Education said it had already organised dates for further facilitated bargaining next week. The ministry said it was disappointed the offer had been rejected and industrial action would not help reach settlement.
The spokesperson however, said that the secondary teachers should not refuse to teach students while that bargaining was under way. The offer, as per the ministry, had balanced the need to attract and retain new teachers, provide a fair increase for experienced teachers, and improve other conditions.
Praneeta Mahajan is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Hamilton.
