Teachers decide to hold second strike ballot

<h2>Teachers and principals will vote in the first week of Term 4 on whether to hold a national week of one-day strike actions in November&comma; NZEI Te Riu Roa announced today&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Last week&comma; teachers and principals resoundingly rejected the latest Ministry of Education offers&comma; which failed to address the need for a significant pay jolt&comma; teacher workload or resourcing for children with additional learning needs&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The proposed strike action would consist of rolling one-day strikes throughout the country in November&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>NZEI Te Riu Roa President Lynda Stuart said the decision came after members were consulted both in schools and at this week’s annual conference over a number of options for industrial action&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;There was also some support for lesser industrial action&comma; and strong support for a two-day strike&period; However the strongest support was for a national week of strike action&comma;&&num;8221&semi; NZEI Te Riu Roa President Lynda Stuart said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Our members are concerned about the impact any strike will have on parents and children&comma; but on balance we are hearing that education is already being disrupted by the teacher shortage&period; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;nzeimediareleases&period;cmail20&period;com&sol;t&sol;r-l-jjhrjlhy-thhtttjjit-y&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Over half of schools didn&&num;8217&semi;t have enough staff last term<&sol;a>&period; We are hearing about so many children being shifted into other classes because schools can&&num;8217&semi;t find a teacher for them&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Public concern about the teacher shortage remains strong &&num;8211&semi; and has grown among those with primary-aged children &&num;8211&semi; along with support for a significant teacher pay rise&comma; according to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;nzeimediareleases&period;cmail20&period;com&sol;t&sol;r-l-jjhrjlhy-thhtttjjit-j&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">a recently released survey by Navigators<&sol;a> for NZEI Te Riu Roa&period; In that research&comma; 87&percnt; of respondents believe primary teachers need a pay rise&period; Of those&comma; 68&percnt; believe teachers need a pay rise higher than 9&percnt;&period; In June&comma; that figure was 60&percnt;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Secret ballots on the action are required under employment law&comma; and will be conducted by NZEI from October 16-25&period;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;