Quality teachers the best investment in our future

The Government is refusing to take a constructive approach to the PPTA negotiations and the need to address important issues like teacher workloads, class size and teacher recruitment and retention, says Labour Education spokesperson Trevor Mallard.

“The need is lost on National,” Trevor Mallard said. “The Government refuses to consider a problem-solving approach, despite the fact that the valuing of teachers and the important work they do is essential for New Zealand’s success.

“Young people are our future and investing in quality teaching is fundamental to their success,” Trevor Mallard said.

“Not only is National not addressing the union claims, but they are also attacking existing conditions. The PPTA has rightly become absolutely frustrated at this approach.

“The irony is that while the Government is apparently unable to find the money to fund a sensible settlement, it can find massive amounts of money to bail out South Canterbury Finance when taking early action would have lessened the risks involved,” Trevor Mallard said.

“This year’s Budget seems to have no contingency funding set aside to deal with settling the secondary teachers’ collective agreement.

“This is in stark contrast to the approach taken by Labour where we deliberately invested in paying real wage increases for groups like teachers and nurses. It wasn’t always easy, but we saw the need to take a principled approach and work with unions to recognise the value of this important work.”

Trevor Mallard said that generally National had a negative attitude to the rights of wage and salary earners.

“This is being demonstrated by a suite of attacks on them. One of the issues at stake in the current negotiations is a claim by the PPTA to stop the 90 day right to sack provisions applying in our secondary schools. The idea of a teacher leaving a permanent job and being fired without cause in the next is just not tenable.

“We support the right of the PPTA to collectively bargain, to take strike action and to advocate for quality education delivered by quality teachers. Labour strongly supports the principle of pay parity and urges secondary teachers to work with their colleagues across the sector and not be weakened by divide and rule tactics.”

ENDS

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