NZ Teachers demand 4% payrise

31 August 2010

The Ministry of Education says it is unfair for secondary school teachers to demand another pay increase in the current economic climate.

Sixteen thousand secondary school teachers plan to walk off the job next month, after negotiations between the Teachers' Union and the Ministry of Education reached a stalemate.

They have been offered a 2.5% increase over two years, but the union is demanding a 4% pay rise.

Fiona McTavish, Ministry of Education Group Workforce Manager, said the ministry won't be offering the teachers any more.

"What we have offered is absolutely reasonable and fair in the current economic environment. We want them to come back and look at the priorities," McTavish said on TV ONE's Breakfast this morning.

But Patrick Walsh from the Secondary Principals' Association said more and more teachers were heading overseas because of relatively low pay in New Zealand.

"New Zealand teachers are greatly valued overseas. They are increasingly getting jobs in the Middle East and Europe because the pay and conditions are far superior to what they're being paid in New Zealand."

He said recruiting teachers to teach some subjects, such as science, technology, music and English was particularly hard.

"A lot of principals are advertising four or five times and even though they're getting applicants, the quality of those applicants is very poor and they wouldn't want to put them in New Zealand classrooms."

"We're hoping that before September 15 both parties can sit down and work this through."

But he said parents would also expect to have high quality teachers teaching in New Zealand classrooms.

Prime Minister John Key yesterday said strike action would alienate parents.

"Parents will find it disruptive and I think they'll find it unreasonable given the offer that's on the table from government," Key said.

More than 90% of Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) members last week voted overwhelmingly for strike action.

It will be the first teachers' strike in eight years if it goes ahead.

Source: TVNZ