Stopwork means double whammy for some parents

Some parents will get hit twice with the impending action. Photo / Greg Bowker

Parents with children at both primary and secondary school face being hit with a double whammy as primary teachers attend stopwork meetings while their secondary counterparts hold rolling strikes.

Nearly half a million children around the country are being sent home for half a day this month while primary and intermediate teachers attend stopwork meetings to discuss their latest pay offer from the Ministry of Education.

Secondary school teachers are holding rolling strikes, targeting year 9, 10 and 11 students for the rest of the school term.

The combination of the two separate lots of industrial action means some parents will be juggling work commitments with having to look after or find alternative care for children who are sent home from primary, intermediate and secondary school at different times.

Education Minister Anne Tolley told the Herald it was a "very difficult time for parents" but she urged them to send their secondary students to school regardless of the strikes. "Teachers are there, they are being paid - (parents) should be sending them to school. They will be supervised, schools have a responsibility to make sure the students are safe, and parents know where they will be rather than parents having to take a day off work or be disadvantaged themselves."

The rolling secondary strikes follow five months of failed negotiations. A second offer from the ministry was rejected this week, triggering the series of strikes which will see 63,000 year 11 students kept home from school today.

Ms Tolley yesterday urged the PPTA to return to the table while the ministry said it would not dock striking teachers' pay this week as a sign of good faith. However, the offer was rejected with PPTA president Kate Gainsford saying today's strike would continue as planned.

West Auckland mother Lee Robertson said she had been hit with a half-day yesterday at her new entrant son's school and her eldest daughter would be affected by the year 10 strikes.

"I can see where the teachers are coming from but at the same time with the economic climate as it is there is not a lot of money to go around."

STRIKE ACTION
Secondary:
* Today, 63,000 Year 11 students kept home
* Next Wednesday 61,000 Year 10 students
* Nov 2, 59,500 Year 9 students

Primary, Intermediate:
* 480,000 children sent home while teachers attend half day stopworks from now until the end of the month.