Media Statement
13 June 2002

Alliance proposes new approach to teachers’ pay negotiations

The Alliance is promoting automatic pay adjustments for state servants, including teachers, as part of a package aimed at stopping future disputes like the one that has crippled the secondary sector.

Alliance Leader Laila Harré and education spokesperson Liz Gordon have written to all PPTA members arguing that it is time to return to a system of annual inflation adjustments for pay in the state sector.

“Teachers and other state sector workers are currently forced into lengthy and unproductive pay talks just to earn the right to maintain the spending power of their salaries”, said Ms. Harré.

“In recent years state sector pay has fallen in real terms as wage increases have failed to keep pace with inflation.

“At the same time, the pay of senior executives, politicians and other well-paid groups has continued to outstrip inflation every year.”

What the Alliance proposes is that any pay negotiations that take place would be free to concentrate on ‘real’ issues of workload and productivity.

“As inflation takes effect, government income automatically rises. All the Alliance is saying is that the increase should be passed on to the state sector workforce on an annual basis,” Laila Harré said.

ENDS

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