More strike action as secondary teachers reject latest pay offer

BRUCE MACKAY/The Post

Strikes are set to continue after secondary teacher rejected the latest offer. (File photo)

Secondary school teachers have voted “overwhelmingly” in favour of rejecting the latest Government offers, with a return to different year levels being rostered home as part of strike action.

It follows close to a year of negotiations between the PPTA (Post Primary Teachers’ Association) Te Wehengarua and Ministry of Education and multiple strike actions.

Chris Abercrombie​, acting president at the PPTA, said members had given a “clear mandate” to seek a better offer.

It comes after secondary teachers resumed strike action this week, when the union advised its members to reject the latest “inadequate” Government pay offer.

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Strike action had recently resumed after the PPTA executive advised its members to reject the latest Government offer, which it described as not “good enough”.

The latest pay offer to secondary teachers included a lump sum payment of $4500 for union members and three pay rises by December 2024, totalling between 11% and 15.5%.

“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,” Abercrombie said.

“And we needed some improvements to staffing and other conditions to enable us to concentrate on teaching and learning.”

He said there was a worsening shortage of secondary teachers, with growing frustrations about the ever-increasing demands on teachers. Many were on the brink of leaving, he said.

Members have also voted on further strike action for the remaining three weeks of term 2, opting to not teach two year levels per day from Monday to Thursday:

Monday, June 12: years 11, 12 Tuesday, June 13: years 9, 13 Wednesday, June 14: years 10, 11 Thursday, June 15: years 12, 13 Monday, June 19: years 9, 10 Tuesday, June 20: years 11, 12 Wednesday, June 21: years 9, 13 Thursday, June 22: years 10, 11 Monday, June 26: years, 12, 13 Tuesday, June 27: years 9, 10 Wednesday, June 28: years 11, 12 Thursday, June 29: years 9, 13

Teachers will also 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. They will also not part in any of their schools’ extracurricular activities on Wednesday 21 June.

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 NZ Qualifications Authority

The ministry had earlier said, if the offer was not accepted, the parties will return to facilitation with the Employment Relations Authority.

Secondary school teachers returned to rostering different year levels home this week – with year 9 students not attending school on Thursday – as part of ongoing industrial action.

The ministry’s general manger employment relations Mark Williamson said the ministry was “very disappointed”.

Stuff

Strike action, including the rostering home of students, will continue for the three remaining weeks of term 2. (File photo)

The two parties could return to facilitated bargaining next week, but it required the PPTA to be prepared to come back to the table, he said.

“Industrial action which impacts student’s learning should not continue while bargaining is underway,” Williamson said.

“Strikes and stopping our young people from learning and participating in school life will not help reach a settlement and only delays teachers from receiving the benefit of the considerable investment that our offer makes in remuneration and conditions.”

The rejected offer had “balanced the need to attract and retain teachers early in their career and provide a fair increase for experienced teachers” while also addressing union concerns about conditions.

“The offer provided immediate one-off payments of up to $5210 to support teachers right away.”

Teachers who are early in their career would have been paid between 26% and 35% more in 2025 than they were paid in 2022, when the collective agreement expired.

Teachers progressing up the scale would have been paid much more than the expected rate of inflation for the coming two years, Williamson said.

Meanwhile, primary school teachers represented by NZEI Te Riu Roa have accepted their latest offer.

Despite accepting the offer, area school teachers represented by NZEI will also have to wait until the PPTA accept as theirs is joint collective agreement.

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