Administration

Unions back new offer, split teacher opinion

<h2>Union members will receive a lump sum and teachers will receive around a 3&percnt; pay rise per year until 2021&period; <&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The new proposal adds &dollar;271 million to cover new ground&comma; which is offset by underspends from Communities of Learning &vert; K&amacr;hui Ako&period; Here are some key takes from the new offer&comma; as announced by the MoE&colon; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>The offers increase the maximum base salary for primary&comma; secondary and area school teachers&comma; with <b>teaching and<&sol;b> <b>subject degrees&comma; to &dollar;90&comma;000 per year&period;<&sol;b> At least 24&comma;000 &lpar;46&percnt;&rpar; teachers will be on &dollar;90&comma;000 from 1 July 2021&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>The offers increase the maximum base salary for primary and secondary and area school teachers&comma; with <b>teaching degrees&comma; to &dollar;85&comma;490 per year&period;<&sol;b> Over 11&comma;000 &lpar;22&percnt;&rpar; teachers will be on &dollar;85&comma;490 from 1 July 2021&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>NZEI and PPTA members will each receive a <b>one-off lump sum of &dollar;1&comma;500 <&sol;b>&lpar;pro-rated for teachers working part time&rpar;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><b>Once pay parity is restored all teachers<&sol;b> <b>will get average increases of about 3&percnt; over 3 years<&sol;b>&comma; as well as an additional top step in their pay scale&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><b>All primary principals will receive at least 3&percnt; increases on 1 July 2019<&sol;b>&comma; with subsequent increases of at least 3&percnt; after twelve months and after 24 months&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Small schools &lpar;100 students and under&rpar; which currently have an entitlement to fewer than two fulltime equivalent teachers &lpar;including the principal&rpar; will receive <b>increased  operational grant funding to allow for two fulltime equivalent staff during the school day<&sol;b>&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;education&period;govt&period;nz&sol;news&sol;collective-bargaining-fact-sheet-13-june-2019&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Click for MoE offer <span style&equals;"text-decoration&colon; underline&semi;">source<&sol;span><&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The agreement also stipulates an Accord&comma; which will allow continuous discussion between teachers and government to improve trust&comma; wellbeing&comma; and desirability of the profession&period;  <strong>Class sizes<&sol;strong> and the removal of current <strong>legislative appraisal requirements <&sol;strong>will be prioritised on the Accord agenda&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to NZEI&comma; &&num;8220&semi;the accord that accompanies the offer gives schools <strong>eight extra teacher-only days<&sol;strong> across the three year term of the agreement&comma; without extending the school year to cover them&&num;8221&semi;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;campaigns&period;nzei&period;org&period;nz&sol;time&sol;june-2019-offer-ptca-ppca&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">NZEI has posted a &&num;8216&semi;p<strong>rimary teacher pay increase calculator&&num;8217&semi;&colon; find out what yours could be by clicking here&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;a><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<h3>Primary benefits of the new settlement<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>NZEI has explained that if voted for by members&comma; the new agreement will restore pay parity across the state schooling sector and invoke a new&comma; unified pay scale&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The Government has also agreed to jointly negotiate the unified pay scale with both us and PPTA whenever our agreements expire&period; This will mean parity for our teachers is maintained long term&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Q3&plus;&comma; Q4&comma; and Q5 teachers will be able to access a new&comma; <strong>top salary step of &dollar;90&comma;000<&sol;strong>&comma; and steps on the base pay scale will <strong>increase by an average of 12&period;5&percnt;<&sol;strong> over the term of the agreement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<div>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<div>&&num;8220&semi;All current teachers would see their base salary increase by at least 18&period;5&percnt; by July 2021&comma; taking into account step progression&period; The median base salary increase by July 2021 would be &dollar;14&comma;500&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<div>For principals&comma; the proposed settlement has a base scale increase of 3&percnt; per year for principals in U3 schools and above&comma; and 4&period;5&percnt;&plus; 4&period;5&percnt; &plus; 4&period;4&percnt; a year for principals in U1 and U2 schools&period; &&num;8220&semi;As the secondary principals agreement has not yet been negotiated&comma; a unified pay scale for principals can only be addressed in future and this is referenced in the accord&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<div> <&sol;div>&NewLine;<div><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;campaigns&period;nzei&period;org&period;nz&sol;time&sol;june-2019-offer-ptca-ppca&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Click for NZEI settlement source&period;<&sol;a>  <&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<h2>PPTA and NZEI have recommended that revised offers from the Government to their members are ratified&comma; Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The revised offers were developed at a forum held last week between the teacher unions and the Ministry of Education and the Education Minister&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The offers will see the agreements expire in 2022&comma; includes more teachers and a commitment to pay parity for teachers&comma;” Chris Hipkins said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;At last week’s forum we all came to the table with a determination to settle&period; All sides were pragmatic in working out a revised deal that takes a longer term view that’s in the best interests of teachers&comma; students and their families&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;A key element of the revised deal is the introduction of a unified base salary scale for primary&comma; secondary and area school teachers that will restore pay parity for primary with secondary teachers&period;  In order to achieve a unified pay scale the revised offer includes a new one-off cash injection to restore pay parity for primary teachers that was eroded under National&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It’s always been the Government’s objective to sort pay parity between primary and secondary teachers over the longer term&comma; but it became a bigger issue in these negotiations and it made sense to bring it forward and get it sorted once and for all&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;In recognition of the additional funding to restore pay parity&comma; an increase will be made to the value of management units and allowances for secondary teachers&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<h2>The revised offer has also been extended to include area schools teachers&comma; who were not part of the original set of offers&comma; Chris Hipkins said&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We have also listened to teachers about the pressure of their workloads&period; Alongside the revised settlement&comma; the Secretary for Education&comma; at my request&comma; has developed an Accord with NZEI and PPTA for how the Government&comma; teachers and principals will work to identify and address workload and wider education issues&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There’s no financial pre-commitment attached to the Accord but it will be an important mechanism to address teacher concerns that have built up over time&period; The Government welcomes it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The later expiry dates&comma; the inclusion of area schools&comma; the one-off injection to achieve pay parity and other components of the settlement&comma; offset by underspends from National’s Communities of Learning programme&comma; has increased the cost of offers by &dollar;271 million to cover the new ground&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; right&semi;">Voting begins June 19&excl;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The secret online ballots for NZEI Te Riu Roa members will begin on Wednesday 19 June and will close at 6pm on 25 June&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The outcomes of the primary teacher and principal votes will be announced on Wednesday 26 June&comma; with the area school teacher outcome announced on Friday 28 June&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Each group is voting on a separate proposed settlement&period; For member groups that vote to ratify&comma; their new agreements will take effect from 1 July&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">Who&&num;8217&semi;s not happy&quest;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>While the offer seems to have largely been embraced by teachers&comma; some principals at small schools have criticised the newly proposed agreement as under the new scale&comma; senior teachers with management units will still be able to earn more than principals at schools with fewer than 100 students&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Waikato principal Carol-Lynn Hill told <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;rnz&period;co&period;nz&sol;news&sol;national&sol;392251&sol;principals-of-small-primary-schools-dismayed-at-latest-pay-offer" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">RNZ<&sol;a><&sol;em>&colon; &&num;8220&semi;I believe it&&num;8217&semi;s really unfair that a teacher with you know&comma; small leadership units&comma; can be on more salary than I am when I feel like I have the ultimate responsibility&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;So it&&num;8217&semi;s kind of a real kick in the guts&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-twitter data-tweetid&equals;"1139445828605448193" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"480"><&sol;amp-twitter>&NewLine;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<h2>14&sol;7&sol;19<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<h3>NZEI released the following statement&colon;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The online ballots for NZEI Te Riu Roa members will run from today&comma; June 19&comma; until 6pm Tuesday June 25&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>NZEI Te Riu Roa President Lynda Stuart said the settlements and accord included a restoration of pay parity for primary teachers through the implementation of a new unified pay scale from July 1&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The pay increases offered to teachers are significantly larger than in previous offers&comma; including a new top step of &dollar;90&comma;000 to help attract and retain teachers&period; Schools will also get eight extra teacher-only days over the three-year term of the agreement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All current teachers would see their base salary increase by at least 18&period;5&percnt; by July 2021 if they ratify the settlement&comma; taking into account step progression&period; The median base salary increase by July 2021 would be &dollar;14&comma;500&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;In recognition of the tough fight our members have put up over the past 18 months to campaign for quality teaching and learning for our kids&comma; we are pleased union members will get a &dollar;1&comma;500 lump sum — and their pay increases will kick in three months ahead of non-members&comma;” she said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Ms Stuart said the union’s National Executive was recommending ratification of the settlements&comma; but it is up to members to make their own decision in the end&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Executive believe the proposed settlements are a significant improvement on previous offers&period; While they do not address all of our issues&comma; the accord gives us the framework to work with the Government to address critical issues like workload and class size&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;However&comma; this is ultimately a decision for members to make&period; They will be voting on whether to ratify the proposed settlement next week&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The proposed settlements come after Education Minister Chris Hipkins intervened in the dispute by calling an urgent conference with the leadership of NZEI Te Riu Roa and PPTA last week&comma; following historic joint strike action by 50&comma;000 teachers and principals on May 29&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>PPTA released the following statement&colon;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Secondary teachers have received a new offer from the government to settle the area school and secondary collective agreements&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The offer includes a lump sum payment of &dollar;1500 for union members only and a new top salary step of &dollar;90&comma;000&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All secondary teachers will receive annual pay increases of 3 percent&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There will also be an increase in the values of middle management and senior management allowances&comma; and an increase in the number of management units so teachers who undertake additional duties can be supported and recognised&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>PPTA president Jack Boyle says&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We knew the biggest mobilisation of teachers in New Zealand’s history had worked when we got a call from the Education Minister&comma; asking the unions to come and sit at the table with him&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Sometimes a circuit breaker is what’s needed to progress an issue&comma; and in this case&comma; it certainly did the trick&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are very pleased to have an offer to take to our members to consider&comma; after months of negotiations&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h5><strong>Editor&&num;8217&semi;s note&colon;<&sol;strong> This article was updated Wednesday&comma; June 19 to include information about the newly announced union ballots taking place this month&period; The following quote from the Ministry&comma; regarding pay &&num;8220&semi;increases of about 3&percnt; over 3 years&&num;8221&semi; has caused confusion&comma; so this article has been updated to clarify that the proposed settlement pay increase would be about 3&percnt; <strong>each year<&sol;strong> for the length of the agreed period&period; <&sol;h5>&NewLine;

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Rosie Clarke

Rosie is the managing editor here at Multimedia Pty Ltd, working across School News New Zealand and School News Australia. She has spent 10+ years in B2B journalism, and has spent some time over the last couple of years teaching as a sessional academic. Feel free to contact her at any time with editorial or magazine content enquiries.

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