Music teacher Justin Lindsay says non-union teachers are being "punished" for their philosophical objections to unions. Photo / File
Music teacher Justin Lindsay says non-union teachers are being "punished" for their philosophical objections to unions. Photo / File
A teacher on an individual contract has complained to the Human Rights Commission about payments union members will get after the settling of a protracted pay wrangle.
And he claims non-union teachers have been kept in the dark that they can negotiate their own employment agreements.
Hastings Boys' High head of music Justin Lindsay claims that the Ministry of Education has discriminated on the basis of political opinion in their new Secondary Teachers Collective Agreement (STCA) 2019-2022.
The collective agreement came into effect for Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) members on July 1 and will lift the top of the teachers' basic salary scale from $78,000 to $90,000 by July 2021.
A $1500 bonus to all union secondary teachers was another component of the deal - costing the Government $63.7 million in total.
"Not only do non-union teachers have no mechanism for their own salary negotiation," Lindsay wrote in his letter to the Human Rights Commission on July 3.
"But now PPTA believes it is acceptable to use strong-arm tactics in a thinly-veiled attempt to punish teachers freely non-associating with their union. It is a clear attempt to punish non-members and to force membership of their union."
But it turns out non-union secondary school teachers can actually negotiate their own salaries right now with their school boards, as Lindsay found out.
Ministry of Education deputy secretary of early learning Pauline Cleaver confirmed non-union teachers were now free to negotiate their own workplace agreements.
Such negotiations would be before the Individual Employment Agreement is handed out to school boards to present to non-union secondary teachers on October 1.
"However their Board is required (under the State Sector Act 1988) to obtain approval for those terms and conditions from the Secretary of Education," Cleaver said of the process of direct negotiation between teacher and school board.
National's Nikki Kaye says the says the Ministry of Education needs to do more to inform non-union teachers of their right to negotiate employment agreements directly with their school boards.
National's education spokeswoman Nikki Kaye claimed there had been no effort by the Ministry of Education to educate non-union secondary teachers they can directly approach their school boards.
"It has taken a lot of work by this teacher to determine that non-union members can negotiate individually with their board to try to negotiate the same conditions as union teachers," Kaye said.
"The problem is there will be thousands of non-union teachers out there that aren't aware of this because the Ministry has not done enough to ensure they know.
"The right thing to do, in my view, is for the Ministry to invest more in working with boards and through other mechanisms to better communicate with non-union teachers to ensure they know their rights."
But Cleaver said such education efforts were not the responsibility of the Ministry of Education.
"Individual employment agreements are negotiated between non-union teachers and Boards of Trustees as the employer. We are not the employer and therefore not involved in these negotiations," she said
Lindsay's complaint to the Human Rights Commission is still being processed.
However, New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) president Lynda Stuart said union members had fought for the pay increases and deserved to reap the rewards.
"They have done the hard yards and they actually deserve to see union benefits from acting collectively," she said.
A PPTA spokeswoman said "probably over 80 per cent" of secondary teachers belonged to the PPTA.
