Teachers post mixed reaction on arbitration, strikes still on

11.45am

Feedback from secondary teachers on whether to take their long-running pay dispute to independent arbitration has been mixed, Post Primary Teachers Association president (PPTA) Jen McCutcheon said today.

Education Minister Trevor Mallard yesterday said the Government would accept the outcome of independent arbitration, but the process would be non-binding on the PPTA.

The PPTA has refused to call off partial strikes planned for tomorrow, Thursday and Friday while it waits for confirmation from its 14,000 members about whether the dispute should go to a third party to seek a resolution.

Mrs McCutcheon said teachers' reaction to the proposal for independent arbitration had been mixed.

"Some members remember arbitration from the good old days and are quite positive about it, but some teachers are very suspicious because they are seeing it in terms of the Government trying to push us into something to shut down industrial action."

Mrs McCutcheon described the Government's move to accept any outcome recommended by the independent panel as a "significant shift", and said the PPTA was trying to speed up its consultation process.

"But we do need members to have a total understanding of the whole proposal. You can't really just push people into doing things, because that will backfire," she said.

Brett Bradley, assistant deputy principal and union branch chairman at Waitakere College, said he believed teachers should try arbitration to stop the dispute dragging on at both their expense and that of their students.

Mr Bradley said the dispute had so far cost his household $2000 in lost earnings, as his wife was also a teacher, although this did not mean he thought the union should back down.

"My feeling after losing that amount of money is not to take the easy way out, but arbitration if the panel is right, and as soon as possible."

Orewa College union branch chairman Alan Walker, whose members sparked a chain reaction by holding the first of about 50 wildcat strikes, said he perceived a general feeling of support for arbitration at his school although there had yet to be any formal debate.

Trevor Mallard said yesterday that after PPTA members had rejected two offers accepted by their executive "it is clear there is an impasse" in the pay negotiations.

"Our intention is therefore to accept the outcomes recommended by an independent panel. It would be over to the PPTA to decide whether they would also accept it."

The panel will include Bruce Murray, recently retired Tawa College principal and former PPTA chairman, and Dame Margaret Bazley, former chief executive of the Ministry of Social Development.

The availability of a third member proposed by the PPTA negotiators and acceptable to the Government has yet to be confirmed.

School Trustees Association president Chris France today said he was hoping to know within "the next day or so" whether the planned industrial action was legal.

"We're looking at advice as to whether action set to roll into place tomorrow is in fact legal," he said.

Under the PPTA's action, year 13 students can expect to be sent home tomorrow, year 12 student on Thursday, and year 11 students on Friday.

"We have been tolerant for 15 months because there has been a lot of support for teachers but that tolerance has got incredibly thin now," Mr France said.

"We're being given a good clear message by our membership that they want us to do something and we're making sure we understand just what our options are."

Mr France said the association told teachers last week that sentiment had shifted and they needed to understand support they'd had in the past had disappeared.

Mrs McCutcheon said she wasn't concerned at the withdrawal of support.

"The STA doesn't represent that many secondary schools, to be honest. I don't think it's helpful that they're weighing in and talk of legal action is not a good look really."

PPTA Northland executive officer Hazel McIntosh said if the arbitration was binding on the Government, it could find favour with the teachers.

She said Northland members were unlikely to agree to any resolution that was not binding on the Government, saying it would be a "red herring" to stop industrial action in the lead-up to the election.

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI), NZPA