End of MECA for Rural Education Programmes

End of MECA for Rural Education Programmes

The Association of Staff in Tertiary Education (ASTE) is negotiating directly with Eastbay REAP for the first time in the history of bargaining with REAPs (Rural Education Activities Programmes). Kris Smith, Assistant Secretary for ASTE said, “It is very disappointing to be forced into this position. In previous years we have bargained with all participating REAPs around the country as a group for a multi-employer collective agreement which has meant that the terms and conditions have been consistent for all REAPs across the country”.

REAPs were set up with Government funding to service the community education needs of rural and more isolated communities. Ms Smith said that the staff employed to coordinate and deliver REAP programmes are all professional staff who have come from backgrounds in other parts of the education sector as well as the health and social services sectors.

With the collapse of the MECA the union has been negotiating on a site by site basis with individual REAPs. “We have successfully concluded bargaining at a number of these sites,” said Ms Smith, “but the manager at EastBay REAP in Whakatane is determined to drastically reduce terms and conditions for new staff and for existing staff to exclude them from provisions such as redundancy pay and access to a decent salary scale. She went on to say that this manager also wanted to increase hours of work and abolish various allowances which are common across the sector.

The settlements reached elsewhere included significant compromises on the part of ASTE members, but Ms Smith said that it was clear that even with these compromises this manager was not going to agree to settle the document. “It is unacceptable to our members that they should have to agree to terms and conditions that are inferior to those enjoyed by their colleagues in the sector.”

“It is also ironic that some Managers of REAPs are taking this approach to negotiations when until recently our Collective Agreement also covered them and when we negotiated on their behalf they fought tooth and nail to retain those conditions” said Kris Smith. “This has not escaped the notice of our members”.

ENDS

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