Pay Parity Deal A Broken Promise To Early Learning

The Minister of Education has let down teachers and centres alike with a watered down Pay Parity offer.

“It’s a let down for early learning providers and the teachers they employ. Centres don’t want the Kindergarten Teachers Collective Agreement model, and the offer means many teachers are no closer to pay parity. No-one wins here,” said ECC President Dr Darius Singh.

Final details of the Pay Parity offer, designed to reduce the pay gap between teachers in centres and kindergartens, have been released 11 working days before the deadline to opt in, leaving little time to work through the details or obtain financial advice.

“If the Minister is confident it’s a good offer, why the delay and late notice? He knows this will be unpopular with teachers and providers alike, it’s a far cry from the budget promises in May,” said acting ECC CEO Sue Kurtovich.

The Early Childhood Council approached the Minister with practical and simple solutions that would have enabled more providers to opt in and get close to paying teachers what they’re worth, which was ignored.

“We’re disappointed. There’s a lot of detail to work through for providers, who are frantic with changing lockdowns and looking after their teams and tamariki,” said Dr Singh.

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