More than 500 Hawke’s Bay secondary teachers meet to discuss union negotiations

PPTA Hawke's Bay chairwoman Cassandra Wilberforce (left), Michael Stevenson, PPTA general secretary, Judy Waapu, Flaxmere College and Amanda Moys, Hawke's Bay PPTA executive at the meeting on Friday. Photo / Paul Taylor

More than 500 Hawke’s Bay secondary school teachers met Friday afternoon to discuss a collective agreement offer from the government.

The Post Primary Teachers’ Association / Te Wehengarua (PPTA) national executive has already rejected the offer, but the PPTA Hawke’s Bay region met to decide how to respond to the offer.

A statement from PPTA Hawke’s Bay said that the key things secondary teachers wanted in a new collective agreement were a salary increase that matched the cost of living, more guidance and pastoral care staff to work with students in need and effective controls on workload.

PPTA Hawke’s Bay region chairwoman Cassandra Wilberforce said the government offer fell short around pay and part-time work conditions.

She said in a statement New Zealand is facing a worsening shortage of subject specialist teachers in high schools.

“Teachers are leaving and graduates are not considering secondary teaching as a career because other careers pay more and give them a reasonable work/life balance. Many schools around the country are struggling to fill vacancies and find day relievers.”

Wilberforce said decisions made at the regional PPTA meetings will be sent to their national office and an announcement about their response will come out next week.

Flaxmere College branch chairwoman Judy Waapu said the government offer seemed like it did not value teachers.

“Going forward, we need to retain teachers, because there is a great shortage. Not only retaining teachers, but we also need to attract them.”

She said there was not much of an appeal to entering a teaching career with the pay scale as it was.

“People [who] go into teaching have a passion to work with our youth and to make sure they are ready and prepared to go forward in their lives as best they can, but if you are struggling hard to survive yourself in this current economic climate, then that is really hard to make happen.”

Teachers filing into the Hastings Sports Centre for the PPTA Hawke's Bay meeting on Friday about the government's new collective agreement offer. Photo / Paul Taylor

Simon Murfitt, media and English teacher at Havelock North High School, said it was good the government had made an offer, but teachers’ pay was still not keeping up with the cost of living and inflation and he agreed with the executive decision to reject the offer.

“We want to keep attracting teachers to the profession, especially youth teachers.”

“It has got to be competitive, with low unemployment there are lots of options for people and I know some people have gone off to do other roles with private businesses or tertiary institutions.”

He said he would be willing to compromise for a slightly lower pay increase if there was a guarantee of better working conditions in a new collective agreement.

The meeting took place at the Hastings Sports Centre during school hours, at 1pm.

PPTA Te Wehengarua members are legally entitled to two two-hour paid union meetings each year.