Arbitration panel recommends 14.5% pay increase for secondary ...

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Arbitration panel recommends 14.5% pay increase for secondary teachers. (File photo)

An arbitration panel said secondary teachers should get an overall pay rise of 14.5%, in the latest talks between the Ministry of Education and the Post Primary Teacher’s Association (PPTA).

The report, released on Monday, recommended teachers get a pay increase of 6% on July 3, 2023, followed by 4% on April 3, 2024, and 3.9% on December 2, 2024.

This is up on the ministry’s previous offer, which secondary teachers called “not good enough”.

If the ministry and union both accept the report’s recommendations, that could mean an end to a year-long pay dispute that sparked multiple nationwide strikes.

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Chris Abercrombie, acting PPTA president, said the union is “satisfied” with the recommendations.

"It's not everything we wanted, but it's a good stepping stone," he said.

The recommendations are now with Cabinet, who are expected to announce their decision on Wednesday, Abercrombie said.

“We are hopeful that the Cabinet will approve the panels recommendations and that will form the basis of a new offer.

“If Cabinet rejects or significantly alters the recommendations, PPTA national executive will need to urgently decide a response,” he said.

Mark Williams, a Ministry of Education group manager, confirmed the ministry has accepted the panel’s report and recommended its decisions to the Minister of Education.

After government puts forward it’s offer, secondary school teachers will vote next week on whether to accept it.

BRUCE MACKAY/Stuff

Chris Abercrombie is Post Primary Teachers' Association's (PPTA) Te Wehengarua acting president.

The dispute’s panel didn’t only consider pay. It also recommended a further $2.5 million be set aside each year for teacher’s professional learning and development opportunities.

Secondary school teachers should be given a one-off payment of $5000 and union members would get a further lump sum of $1500, the panel decided.

Teachers should also receive $750 to cover the cost of their teacher registration during the three-year pay agreement.

The panel also recommended that the ministry and PPTA review how other organisations value staff with advanced te reo Māori expertise, in preparation for the next collective agreement negotiations.

The Ministry of Education and PPTA first entered arbitration in late June after all previous attempts at negotiations failed.

Arbitration is a process for the settlement of disputes in which an independent and impartial arbitrator, or panel, makes a decision or recommendations after considering the representations of the parties.

Chris Abercrombie said that pay negotiations have been long process: “I am very hopeful that this will be the end of it.”