Secondary teachers reject collective agreement offers

“Members have given national executive and the negotiating teams a clear mandate to seek a better offer that meets the pressing needs of secondary education and the secondary teaching profession,” says Chris Abercrombie, PPTA Te Wehengarua acting president.

“When negotiations began more than a year ago we made it clear that secondary teachers needed a pay increase that matched inflation, simply to stop the value of our salaries falling further behind. And we needed some improvements to staffing and other conditions to enable us to concentrate on teaching and learning.

“We have a worsening shortage of secondary teachers – any school principal will tell you how increasingly difficult it is to fill vacancies. We cannot afford to let pay and conditions slide. Secondary education is the gateway to life opportunities for our rangatahi – it needs to be resourced and valued adequately.”

Chris Abercrombie said he hoped the settlement of the primary teachers’ collective agreement would enable the Government to focus more sharply on the needs of secondary education and find a solution to the impasse.

“Our members are increasingly frustrated at the fact that the demands on teachers are skyrocketing and many teachers are on the brink of leaving, but this is not being acknowledged by the Government in its offers to us.”

At the same time as they voted on the latest offer, PPTA Te Wehengarua members also voted on further industrial action for the rest of Term 2 – the next three weeks. They will not teach two year levels per day Monday to Thursday (see schedule below), they will not use entitled planning and marking time to relieve for absent teachers, and they will not attend meetings or respond to emails outside of regular school hours.

PPTA Te Wehengarua members who are not part of NCEA pilots will not do work related to NCEA changes, including engagement with the Ministry of Education and the NZ Qualifications Authority. PPTA members will also not take part in any of their schools’ extracurricular activities on Wednesday 21 June.

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Rostering home schedule