Primary teachers and principals have overwhelmingly voted to reject the Ministry’s third round of offers, in a secret online ballot that closed last night.
NZEI Te Riu Roa President Lynda Stuart said the message from members was that the offers still did not do enough to fix the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention.
“The big concern for members was that the offers had nothing that would give teachers more time to teach or principals time to lead.
“From the beginning of this process we’ve been clear that to attract and retain teachers we need to be paid fairly and have the time and support to ensure every child gets the best possible education.”
“While the latest offer for teachers included a total salary increase of approximately $9,500 – $11,000 over three years, it failed to address the important issues of time and class size, which underpin the crisis in education,” she said.
“Disappointingly, we end this year without the necessary movement from the Government, and with still not enough to meet the needs of children, schools and teachers.”
NZEI has informed the Ministry and Minister of the outcome of the ballots, and will seek further negotiations immediately, requesting a new offer by early in Term 1 to bring back to members.
As a National supporter I would be the first to admit they dropped the ball on teachers pay and conditions but the situation goes back the changes in the 80s so both Labour ad National are responsible for the dire situation that education is in.
Labour were left a legacy of huge surpluses which they could use to settled both sets of teacher claims and make us a leader in education again.
If they need to save money they could reverse the free fees which is a disaster and take some of the money back they gave to Shane Jones before he is allowed to fritter more of it away on his mates schemes that do not pass go with any of the banks
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