Secondary teachers consider revised offer for collective agreement

“We have sent details to our members today and they will have until Thursday to vote to either accept or reject the offer,” says Chris Abercrombie, PPTA Te Wehengarua president.

More than 19,700 teachers throughout Aotearoa New Zealand are covered by the PPTA Te Wehengarua Secondary Teachers’ Collective Agreement.

“The offer included more money for pay, with increases spread unevenly across the teaching workforce and still below current and projected rates of inflation.

“PPTA Te Wehengarua national executive has met and reviewed the new offer. We believe it is insufficient to meet the needs of secondary schools, secondary students and the secondary teaching profession.

“Teaching is harder than ever, but the Government has still failed to meaningfully address the unmet student need in classrooms, at the same time as we face once in a generation changes to secondary school assessment and qualifications systems.”

Chris Abercrombie said the national executive had recommended to members that they vote to reject the offer.

“We’re disappointed that the Government is still not addressing the major issues at the heart of our collective agreement claims – the need for salaries and conditions that will keep skilled and experienced teachers in the job, to lead schools and students through the Government’s changes, in the midst of a worsening shortage of secondary teachers.

“And we need more pastoral care staffing in our secondary schools to help the increasing number of students who are struggling. More and more young people are doing it tough and they deserve to have access to the kind of pastoral care that will help them work through their issues so they are in a great space to learn.

“The Government says it wants a world-leading education system, and we want that too, but world-leading systems cannot be built on the cheap.”