Latest news with #ChrisAbercrombie
Scoop
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
PPTA Members Polled On Additional Pay Claim To Recognise Pay Equity Loss
Press Release – PPTA The shocking changes made recently to the Equal Pay Act have not only extinguished our members claim for pay equity, but they also prevent us from making a claim in the future, says Chris Abercrombie, PPTA Te Wehengarua president. Members of PPTA Te Wehengarua, the secondary school teachers' union, are being polled on whether they want to lodge an additional pay claim in their upcoming collective agreement negotiations now that new pay equity law has locked them out of the process. 'The shocking changes made recently to the Equal Pay Act have not only extinguished our members' claim for pay equity, but they also prevent us from making a claim in the future,' says Chris Abercrombie, PPTA Te Wehengarua president. Secondary teachers do not meet the new threshold of being in a profession that is made up of at least 70% women. New comparator rules also lock teachers out of pay equity claims as the education sector is female dominated. PPTA members had expected the pay equity process to help address the low wages which are a key driver of the current secondary teacher shortage crisis. 'So, we are holding a vote for members to decide if they want to lodge an additional pay claim in the collective agreement negotiations due to begin soon. 'This additional claim would recognise the fact that a pay equity claim process is no longer available to us, because of the changes that were steamrolled through Parliament, without public discussion or mandate, to fill the holes in the Budget.' The ballot of 21,000 PPTA Te Wehengarua members opens today and closes next Friday. Results will be available around 11 June.
Scoop
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
PPTA Members Polled On Additional Pay Claim To Recognise Pay Equity Loss
Members of PPTA Te Wehengarua, the secondary school teachers' union, are being polled on whether they want to lodge an additional pay claim in their upcoming collective agreement negotiations now that new pay equity law has locked them out of the process. 'The shocking changes made recently to the Equal Pay Act have not only extinguished our members' claim for pay equity, but they also prevent us from making a claim in the future,' says Chris Abercrombie, PPTA Te Wehengarua president. Secondary teachers do not meet the new threshold of being in a profession that is made up of at least 70% women. New comparator rules also lock teachers out of pay equity claims as the education sector is female dominated. PPTA members had expected the pay equity process to help address the low wages which are a key driver of the current secondary teacher shortage crisis. 'So, we are holding a vote for members to decide if they want to lodge an additional pay claim in the collective agreement negotiations due to begin soon. 'This additional claim would recognise the fact that a pay equity claim process is no longer available to us, because of the changes that were steamrolled through Parliament, without public discussion or mandate, to fill the holes in the Budget.' The ballot of 21,000 PPTA Te Wehengarua members opens today and closes next Friday. Results will be available around 11 June.
NZ Herald
22-05-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Budget 2025: Education's $2.5b boost: Where the money is going
The death of the scheme from January next year leaves around $375m for the school learning reform. A teachers union fears much of the funding for the education boost has come from the $12.8b saved by tightening up the pay equity scheme, calling it 'tainted money'. Education Minister Erica Stanford called it the biggest boost in a generation for learning support after years of 'pittance'. 'Teachers, I've heard what they've been telling me for the last 18 months – of the overwhelming nature of having so many children, and there are an increasing number of them, with additional learning needs. 'We don't have the teacher aide support, the specialist support, the speech language therapists, the educational psychologists that they need. We are now making sure those supports will be available.' The PPTA, an education union, finds the gains bittersweet, deploring the funding of education with 'tainted money' that was set aside to fund pay equity claims for hundreds of thousands of workers. 'It will be a constant reminder of the depths this Government is prepared to stoop to, to pay for unaffordable promises it made to win power,' union president Chris Abercrombie said. Around $36m in funding has been moved from one cluster of Māori education initiatives to another. The new Māori education package includes a training scheme to help teachers learn te reo, which comes after the Government cut a similar $30m scheme last year. It also includes the development of a 'te ao Māori learning area' and a 'virtual learning network' to plug gaps in teacher supply at wharekura and secondary schools. The Budget 2025 education package includes: $266m to extend the Early Intervention Service (EIS) from early childhood education to the end of year 1 of primary school. This will fund more than 560 additional FTE for EIS teachers and specialists. $122m to meet increased capacity of the ORS. $192m to put Learning Support Co-ordinator in all Year 1-8 schools and kura. $43m for an extra 78.5 FTE speech language therapists and additional psychologists and supporting teacher-aide hours. $4m for 25 intern educational psychologists annually. $90m of capital for approximately 25 new learning support satellite classrooms. Principal Infometrics economist Brad Olsen supported the funding boost, saying it would help these young people fulfil their potential as they became adults. 'It's clearly an area of need. Perhaps we really were underfunding it effectively for a longer period of time than we should have. 'These are people with a bit more support, with a bit more targeted support, can really start to fulfil their potential a lot more.'
NZ Herald
22-05-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Budget 2025: Education's $2.5b boost - Where the money is going
The death of the scheme from January next year leaves around $375m for the school learning reform. A teachers union fears much of the funding for the education boost has come from the $12.8b saved by tightening up the pay equity scheme, calling it 'tainted money'. Education Minister Erica Stanford called it the biggest boost in a generation for learning support after years of 'pittance'. 'Teachers, I've heard what they've been telling me for the last 18 months – of the overwhelming nature of having so many children, and there are an increasing number of them, with additional learning needs. 'We don't have the teacher aide support, the specialist support, the speech language therapists, the educational psychologists that they need. We are now making sure those supports will be available.' The PPTA, an education union, finds the gains bittersweet, deploring the funding of education with 'tainted money' that was set aside to fund pay equity claims for hundreds of thousands of workers. 'It will be a constant reminder of the depths this Government is prepared to stoop to, to pay for unaffordable promises it made to win power,' union president Chris Abercrombie said. Around $36m in funding has been moved from one cluster of Māori education initiatives to another. The new Māori education package includes a training scheme to help teachers learn te reo, which comes after the Government cut a similar $30m scheme last year. It also includes the development of a 'te ao Māori learning area' and a 'virtual learning network' to plug gaps in teacher supply at wharekura and secondary schools. The Budget 2025 education package includes: $266m to extend the Early Intervention Service (EIS) from early childhood education to the end of year 1 of primary school. This will fund more than 560 additional FTE for EIS teachers and specialists. $122m to meet increased capacity of the ORS. $192m to put Learning Support Co-ordinator in all Year 1-8 schools and kura. $43m for an extra 78.5 FTE speech language therapists and additional psychologists and supporting teacher-aide hours. $4m for 25 intern educational psychologists annually. $90m of capital for approximately 25 new learning support satellite classrooms. Principal Infometrics economist Brad Olsen supported the funding boost, saying it would help these young people fulfil their potential as they became adults. 'It's clearly an area of need. Perhaps we really were underfunding it effectively for a longer period of time than we should have. 'These are people with a bit more support, with a bit more targeted support, can really start to fulfil their potential a lot more.'
Scoop
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Budget Initiatives Come At The Expense Of Working Women
Secondary teachers welcome some of the initiatives announced in the Budget today, including changes to the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) and an increase in alternative education funding, but deplore the way these have been funded, says Chris Abercrombie, PPTA Te Wehengarua president. 'We can't ignore the fact that any gains to education from the Budget are being largely paid for with tainted money – money that was set aside to fund the just pay equity claims of almost 200,000 workers in Aotearoa New Zealand, says Chris Abercrombie, PPTA Te Wehengarua president. It will be a constant reminder of the depths this Government is prepared to stoop to, to pay for unaffordable promises it made to win power.' 'The ORS changes have been long asked for and will make a significant difference to the serious needs of thousands of children and young people. However, secondary schools also desperately need more pastoral care staff and guidance counsellors to help rangatahi navigate complex issues and situations that are affecting their ability to learn and engage with school. 'There will be many secondary schools without learning support coordinators who will be wondering why they have been left out. Students and whānau need for support doesn't stop when they reach a secondary school gate. Chris Abercrombie said it was not surprising – due to numerous leaks – but still deeply concerning to see the Government doing away with kāhui ako, or communities of learning in order to fund other initiatives. Kāhui ako focus on transition, attendance and learning support, so are essential for ensuring the very students targeted by government initiatives in this budget can succeed at secondary school. 'Kāhui ako provide an alternative and greatly valued career path for about 4000 skilled and experienced teachers around the motu, many of whom may well leave teaching now, exacerbating our secondary teacher shortage. It should have continued to be funded, alongside new initiatives. 'We are pleased to see some increase in funding for alternative education – one of the most drastically underfunded areas of our secondary education system. There is a rapidly increasing need for a properly funded and resourced end-to-end system of support for young people at risk of disengaging from education. Funding for alternative education places has not increased for many years, while need has skyrocketed, so we welcome this – but wish it was a lot more.'
