Secret online ballots scheduled to vote on latest MoE offer, which would increase base salary scale by 3% p.a

The Ministry of Education has tabled new collective agreement offers for primary teachers and principals, who will hold secret online ballots next week to vote on whether to accept the offers.

NZEI Te Riu Roa members will consider whether the offers address their concerns about the growing teacher shortage and the inadequate support for children with additional learning  needs.

The revised offer for primary teachers includes:

• 3 year term from date of settlement
• Increase base salary scale by 3% each year from date of settlement.
• No funding for supporting children with additional learning needs, such as funding the Special Education Needs Coodinator role (SENCO) in each school.
• No provisions for reducing workloads or class sizes

The revised offer for primary principals includes:

• 3 year term from date of settlement
• Increase base salary scale by 3% each year from date of settlement for principals of schools with more than 100 students.
• Increase base salary scale by 4.5%+4.5%+4.4% a year from date of settlement for principals of schools with fewer than 100 students.
• No provisions to address workload

NZEI’s teacher lead negotiator Liam Rutherford said members would consider whether the offers addressed the needs of children and their learning. It also remained to be seen whether parents and the wider public thought the offer would make a difference for children. 

“As teachers and principals we can see that the issues in our schools simply can’t wait any longer and our students’ learning is already being negatively affected because of the difficulty in recruiting and retaining teachers,” he said.

“Member leaders are not making any recommendation to the wider membership about whether to reject or accept the offer.”

If the offers are rejected there will be further consultation with members, and at the NZEI Annual Conference in early October, where members will make recommendations about next steps.