Rush to Ratify Shown A Mistake

Media Release: Education Reporters
Friday 18 October 2002

Rush to Ratify Shown A Mistake

“The unilateral action by the Ministry of Education in forcing teachers to go through the degree equivalent hoop a second time shows how wrong the PPTA Executive was to rush to ratification in August, ” Martin Cooney, spokesperson for the September 20 group said today. “The community was told that the secondary pay issue was settled. Our group argued to hold off ratification till all teachers knew what their pay rate was.”

“PPTA now must accept that its earlier confident predictions that the issue could be sorted quickly were wrong. Negotiations have formally broken down and therefore industrial action is legal while the arbitration panel is stating what its intention was.”

“These teachers are yet to be called to face to face meetings with their Executive since the arbitration panel reported in August. PPTA Executive needs to call teachers to stopwork meetings urgently where full information is given and resolutions are put that industrial bans are restored until (1) the Government announces that G3= teachers will receive our pay rise on 5 February and (2) recognises the need to restore G1/G2 relativity.” said Mr Cooney.

“Parents sick of the longlasting disruption can email Mr Mallard at tmallard@ministers.govt.nz, ” said Mr Cooney.
For more information: Martin Cooney 03 385 2126 (H) 03 3526 119 (W)

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