Teachers begin week of strikes

Education Minister Erica Stanford. Photo: RNZ

Education Minister Erica Stanford says "parents should be furious" that rolling strikes for teachers fall on exam days.

Seven days of strike action by 21,000 school teachers is set to begin today.

Teachers will refuse to teach certain class levels on certain days this week, take part in a full day national strike on October 23, carry out a ban on extracurricular activity on October 29 and take part in a two-hour national strike on the afternoon of Wednesday November 5.

The strikes occur in the lead-up and during NCEA exams, being held from November 4-28.

"Those students who are going to miss out on days with these rolling strikes are about to go into their final exams," Stanford told RNZ's Morning Report programme today.

"They need their teacher in front of them for that very last-minute revision."

The PPTA said its members who taught in secondary and area schools (Years 0-13) endorsed strike action after a lack of progress with their collective agreement negotiations.

President Chris Abercrombie said the government presented the union with an offer for settlement of the Secondary Teachers' Collective Agreement just 10 minutes before a meeting was scheduled.

"The pay increase being offered is still below current and projected rates of inflation and the offer fails to address the issues that are at the heart of our claims.

"We need salaries and conditions that will attract people into teaching and keep our skilled and experienced teachers in the profession, particularly as we face once in a generation reforms of our secondary school curriculum and qualifications systems."

Abercrombie said the offer included two pay rises - 2.5% after settlement and 2% some 12 months after that - but no more until after the next bargaining started. He said that would probably mean up to 24 months with no further pay rises.

It also ignored teachers' claims for more pastoral staffing to help the increasing number of students who had health and emotional needs which were preventing them from engaging fully with learning, Abercrombie said.

Stanford said the government had been engaging in good faith with secondary teachers over the pay talks, and the failure to reach agreement was not for lack of trying.

The assertion that the union got the offer last minute was "absolute rubbish", as they knew the offer was coming, she said.

"They are negotiating in bad faith. They wanted to go to a strike, and they've done that."

She said she was horrified the union did not bother taking the offer they received on Friday to their members.

She was not involved in the talks but said Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche, who was leading the negotiations, was committed to keeping them going.

Roche told Morning Report yesterday the timing of when the offer landed was a coincidence and irrelevant to the substance of the issue.

He said they had worked tirelessly with the union last week, and did their best to respond to its concerns.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said he was astounded Stanford was not across the details of the talks, saying it showed her lack of interest in the negotiation process.