Primary and Secondary teachers will participate in more strike action for better pay and working conditions. Photo/ Michael Craig
Primary and Secondary teachers will participate in more strike action for better pay and working conditions. Photo/ Michael Craig
As a new school term begins, so does further industrial action by both secondary and primary school teachers as they continue to fight for better pay and working conditions.
Secondary and primary school teachers’ strike actions will look slightly different to each other, according to the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) and the New Zealand Educational Institute Te Riu Roa (NZEI), but they are both working towards the same goal for their teachers.
Negotiations for the new offers began in the middle of last year, and in February, the principals of the area and primary schools rejected the Government’s second offer.
On March 16, tens of thousands of primary, area, and secondary school teachers participated in a historic one-day walkout, but unions say it wasn’t enough to get the Government to listen to their pleas.
Teachers strike marching along Wellesley St in Central Auckland on March 16. Photo / Michael Craig
According to the NZEI, their work ban will include “a pause on all work that principals normally do with the ministry”.
In a statement earlier this month, NZEI reported this included any work on introducing or implementing any new ministry initiative such as the curriculum refresh, or collecting or collating any information for the ministry. It also includes any work outside 8am to 5pm on weekdays apart from board meetings, and all work on weekends.
NZEI’s negotiating team leader for primary principals, Lynda Stuart, said members had had enough.
“The Government hasn’t listened to us, so we are taking action,” Stuart said.
“The work of school leadership simply isn’t sustainable and what we are seeking is greater support to help us do that work. We need the long-standing issues around pay disparity to be addressed to ensure that we can attract great leaders into our schools.”
Negotiating team lead for primary principals for NZEI Lynda Stuart the members have had enough. Photo / Doug Sherring
Meanwhile, members of the PPTA Te Wehengarua will refuse to give up their regular planning and marking time starting tomorrow in secondary and area schools around the nation to cover for missing teachers or open posts. They won’t go to any meetings after school hours either.
There will also be rolling strikes, as they refuse to teach different year levels of students on certain days, known as rostering home.
In the third week of term (the week beginning May 8), PPTA members plan to strike on different days in different regions, starting down south and finishing up north.
PPTA negotiating team member Kieran Gainsford said there had not been satisfactory progress on some major issues so action is necessary, although they would have liked to start the term in a “settled environment”.
Gainsford said the action had a really important purpose, emphasising the fact there was a teacher shortage and pay increases were needed to match inflation.
“We’ve been negotiating for 11 months and also that the Government seems at this stage quite unwilling to move from the inflexible position,” Gainsford said.
“We’re taking this action because we see that this is the only way that we can get the Government to listen and to make that happen to deliver the education system that young people really deserve.”
Gainsford said although teachers were becoming increasingly frustrated, they remained hopeful an agreement could be made that allowed teachers to continue to do the job they loved and give students a quality education.
“It is fantastic and incredibly important work, but it needs to be valued appropriately. Our rangatahi need specialist teachers for every subject and they need kaiako who can bring their best selves to the job through manageable workloads,” Gainsford said.
