ERA slams teacher union’s pay demands

Teachers during strike action at Mount Maunganui in August.

The Employment Relations Authority has slammed the teachers union's pay demands as "totally unrealistic" and is urging teachers to take the Government's offer.

Despite an improved deal from the Education Ministry following five days of talks, the Educational Institute refused yesterday to call off next week's primary school strikes.

In his recommendations to the parties - released in full by the Ministry yesterday - the authority's chief James Crichton says the Government's offer was "a handsome and competitive proposal in the current fiscal environment".

"My prevailing impression of this facilitation is that NZEI came into the process with a series of proposals which taken in their totality had an air of unreality about them".

The total cost of the union's proposals was around $2.5 billion, which was "an unrealistic impost on any employer, including the Government", he wrote.

The Ministry's package would cost about $700 million over four years.

Most teachers would get between $9500 and $11,000 extra annually in their salaries by 2020.

The $1.8b difference in the totals highlighted the "total unreality" of the union's claim, he says.

He believes the NZEI's negotiating team would and could have settled had it not been "saddled with totally unrealistic riding instructions".

"It is, in my judgement, simply unrealistic to hold out for further concessions when all the evidence is the Government has gone as far as it will go."

The Government is committed to working with teachers to "gradually" address the sectors needs.

Talks collapsed after the Ministry agreed to fund a half day's paid leave to allow teachers to consider the latest offer, but after consultation with some members, the union demanded a full day's paid leave.

"I was genuinely disappointed the facilitation failed to avert the strike but I stand ready to assist the parties in further facilitation, if that is desired."

NZEI Te Riu Roa President Lynda Stuart says the union's 30,000 primary teacher and principal members will consider the offer and the ERA recommendations at meetings next week during the rolling strikes.

"We have always said we would take any recommendations and offers back to members, and that is exactly what will happen next week. It will be up to them to decide whether the offers are sufficient to fix the education crisis."

But Lynda Stuart from the Educational Institute is disputing that figure and says their demands are justified.

"We don't think that it's being unreasonable.

"We've always said that we were asking for something more than what was business as usual and in light of the teacher shortage."

Lynda says the union's costing of what they are asking for is about $900million over a two year period.

She says the union will consider the offer and the authority's recommendations during the rolling strikes next week, which have not been called off.

The latest offer by the Ministry of Education was given "at the very last minute", she says.

Lynda says the Educational Institute did look at the practicalities of calling off the strike.

"[The paid union] meetings across the country were at 10am, we had venues booked [and] we could not guarantee that we could get teachers back into classrooms by 12pm.

"We want our teachers to be able to really consider the offer [and] to have the conversations they need to have."

She says a vote on the offer will take place in early December.

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1 comment

teachers

Posted on 10-11-2018 11:54 | By mlangdon

These teachers and their union are being totally unreasonable, of course we need more teachers and better working conditions, they have been offered a very very generous wage increase and the Government is working on employing more teachers but it wont and cannot happen overnight, all they are doing now by going back on strike is alienating themselves with parents and the rest of us, they need to 'get real' and just get on with their job and let the Government sort out the shortages as best and as quickly as they can.


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