Secondary teachers union rejects one of lowest pay offer ever

RNZ News

24-07-2025

Photo:
123RF
The secondary teachers union has rejected a pay offer of 1 percent a year for three years.
RNZ understands it is one of the lowest offers ever made to secondary teachers.
The offer to members of the Post Primary Teachers Association amounts to a three percent pay rise over three years.
That is well below the 14.5 percent over three years
won through arbitration
in 2023 and the average 10 percent over three years the union's members
grudgingly accepted
in 2019.
Both of those settlements also included lump sum payments.
The government's offer this year also sought to increase the number of days outside term time that schools can require teachers to come to work from 10 to 20 each year.
The Public Service Commissioner, Sir Brian Roche, was overseeing this year's negotiations.
In May he announced he would retain the responsibility usually delegated to the Education Ministry.
"My rationale for this decision is influenced by the wider objective of overseeing collective bargaining and managing fiscal pressures across the public sector," he said at the time.
Sir Brian was disappointed the PPTA had rejected the pay offer and urged the union to reconsider.
He said the offer was carefully crafted to recognise the contribution teachers make while ensuring it was affordable for taxpayers in a difficult economic times.
"The offer on the table represented a 3 percent increase over three years, on top of annual pay progression of between 4.5 percent and 7.5 percent," he said.
"For many secondary teachers, this equates to pay increases between $3100 and $8000 a year, with regular annual progression included. Over three years the offer provides increases of between $1850 to $3123, or between $7275 and $15250 with annual pay progression.
"The economic environment and the government's fiscal position are very difficult. Every additional dollar spent must be weighed against what is sustainable and fair to all New Zealanders.
"I am open to continued dialogue and am committed to reaching a settlement that supports teachers, students, and our public school system."
Post Primary Teachers Association President Chris Abercrombie, told
Morning Report
, he believed teachers deserved an agreement that reflected their skills.
"We've got immense change in our sector right now and we need a qualified suitable workforce to implement that change."
Abercrombie said it had been 30 years since they had seen this happen.
Education Minister Erica Stanford said she was disappointed the offer was not put to members.
Education Minister Erica Stanford on a school visit in May.
Photo:
RNZ / Tim Brown
"I was surprised that the offer wasn't put to their members. That was disappointing ... it wasn't unexpected because they don't often make that first offer available to their members. I thought it was a reasonable offer. It should have been put to the members, and it was disappointing that it wasn't."
She said it was not unusual for the Public Service Commissioner to be involved in negotiations, and entirely appropriate.
"The education team at the moment, as you know, are undertaking an enormous reform package that is bigger than anything we've seen in a long time, and we are focused on that, and having the Public Service Commissioner do the bargaining means that we are free to continue to undertake our huge reform package, and he's the right man for the job.
"It was just a discussion that we all had: who is best for doing the job, given the amount of work we've got underway at the moment."
She said provisional figures showed the largest increase in teacher numbers in 20 years.
"We've had 27 percent increase in those who are training at initial teacher education this year, last year, it was 6 percent ... we are world leading in our reforms and if you take a look at the numbers in terms of retention it shows you that yes some people are moving to Australia but not on the numbers that people are saying."
The Educational Institute Te Riu Roa (NZEI) started negotiation of the primary teachers collective agreement last month.
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