Kindergarten industrial action escalates

Kindergarten teachers at yesterday's meeting. Picture / Martin Sykes

Hundreds more kindergarten teachers will walk off the job tomorrow to attend stopwork meetings as a contract dispute intensifies.

Teachers in central Auckland, Wanganui, and Mt Maunganui yesterday voted on whether to take further industrial action. Votes would not be counted till the end of the week.

Some affected kindergartens have told parents to keep their children at home but others will stay open with extra staff.

Some kindergartens in Wairarapa, Upper Hutt, Lower Hutt and parts of Auckland and the South Island will close for two hours for the second day of stopwork meetings.

New Zealand Educational Institute assistant secretary Peter Monteith said that more than 1500 teachers from around the country would attend meetings this week to vote on proposed strike action on December 8.

Negotiations between NZEI and the Education Ministry and the kindergarten associations broke down last week.

The union wants maximum contact hours guaranteed, recognition of head and senior teachers and term breaks.

Meanwhile, some kindergartens say that the Government's plan to increase opening hours may force more of them to introduce compulsory fees, signalling the end of the 100-year tradition of free kindergarten education for New Zealand children.

Some kindergartens, faced with reduced rolls, fewer volunteers and calls for them to be open longer, have moved to a fee-based structure.

Eftpos machines are being installed in some centres to deal with payments.

Canterbury-Westland Kidsfirst chief executive Sherryll Wilson said she could not rule out compulsory fees at the region's 62 centres.

"The Kindergarten Association is uncertain about its future environment, especially with the proposed introduction of the 20 hours free early-childhood education beginning in 2007, and we really don't know what will happen."

- NZPA