Teachers Tell Government That Offer 'Needs Improvement' In Resounding Rejection Vote

27 November 2022

Tens of thousands of primary and area school teachers from across Aotearoa have unequivocally voted to reject offers made by the Ministry of Education to settle their collective agreements and told them to ‘do better’.

NZEI Te Riu Roa members covered by collective agreements for primary and area school teachers, principals and kindergarten teachers attended meetings over the last two weeks to discuss and vote on the offers made on behalf of the Government.

“The teacher meetings were robust and frank and pretty much unanimous in telling the Government that their offer needs improvement,” NZEI Te Riu Roa President Liam Rutherford said. “It was clear that the pay component did not meet the rising cost of living, which will of course be affected by the Reserve Bank decision earlier this week.

“But most importantly, the offer did nothing to even come close to our major concerns around reducing classroom ratios, fixing funding for learning support, reducing work demands and giving us time to teach.”

Mr Rutherford said union members had also discussed their plans for future action if the Government does not improve the offer following further negotiations.

“There was a lot of feeling out there,” he said. “Teachers are frustrated and disappointed the Government does not seem to be listening to them, which is the message they asked the negotiating teams to take back.”

He said he was hearing anecdotally there were similar feelings at meetings for primary and area school principals, who will announce their results on a livestream from May Road School in Auckland on Tuesday (29 Nov) at 11.30 am.

“It’s clear that the teaching professions feels the Government is not taking them seriously, or recognising the impact Covid has had on their wellbeing and mental health. That follows years of cumulative stress being placed upon them because of under-investment in education,” Mr Rutherford said.

“With this vote, teachers have sent a message to the Government that they need to take action now.”

Teachers also voted to take immediate action to advocate together to their MPs and for a further round of union meetings in Term 1 next year.

The ballot for primary and area-school principals closes on Sunday evening with the announcement of results on Tuesday, while union meetings for kindergarten teachers finish on Thursday (1 December).

© Scoop Media