Teachers told it's time to settle

Photo / Bay of Plenty Times

The Ministry of Education says striking teachers have nearly run out of time to settle the collective agreement this year.

The warning came late yesterday after the Post Primary Teachers Association said a year 10 strike planned for tomorrow would go ahead despite the two parties having spent two days this week negotiating.

While talks are expected to continue today, neither side sounds confident of reaching an agreement.

PPTA president Kate Gainsford said negotiators were left doubting the Government's commitment to a settlement after two days of hard bargaining this week.

"The ministry's lack of movement or even willingness to engage in concrete commitments to improvements in conditions is disappointing," she said. "In particular, we are not confident that the Government is committed to dealing with the serious issue of class size with any sense of urgency."

Ms Gainsford said in order to return to the bargaining table this week, after two failed attempts, the PPTA had to bring its negotiating team in from all around the country.

"For us it means taking teachers away from their classrooms which is not something we do lightly ... we have been bargaining for five long months now and are beginning to question whether there is a genuine commitment from the Government to settle or whether education is a priority for them at all."

While PPTA has not walked away from negotiations, strike action in the form of rostering home more than 60,000 students tomorrow will still proceed at this stage.

The ministry last night urged the PPTA to call off its strikes and return to the table with a commitment to settling this year.

Group manager education workforce Fiona McTavish said the ministry had worked in good faith with the PPTA but there was no more money.

"We come to bargaining wanting to settle. We've worked hard to address the PPTA's main concerns. We've been clear about the size of the funding envelope, and that we have to work with the PPTA to determine priorities for that funding."

Ms McTavish said while both parties had made progress towards agreement on various matters, they had not been able to find a way forward on certain key issues - something that was "extremely disappointing".

"We feel great frustration for the families, students and schools who will continue to suffer the disruption of strike action for the rest of this term," she said.

Tomorrow's strike coincides with the first day of secondary school examinations. Almost 144,000 students are about to embark on NCEA and Scholarship exams but the PPTA says the strikes do not affect senior students or their preparations.