PPTA Breaks Down Negotiations

PPTA Breaks Down Negotiations

PPTA negotiators have walked from the bargaining table after 13 fruitless sessions, president Kate Gainsford said.

“The ministry has had a month since members overwhelmingly rejected its unacceptable offer and it has come back to the table with nothing new – we are not going to waste members’ time and money talking about the same thing over and over, when there is little indication the ministry wishes to achieve a ratifiable settlement.”

Gainsford said the negotiating team had returned to the table, at the ministry’s request, hopeful that it had listened and understood the very real need behind the claims for the Secondary Teachers’ Collective Agreement (STCA).

“However it now appears they have no will to address teachers’ concerns at all and continue to undervalue teachers,” she said.

PPTA’s claim was designed to be practical and affordable in improving conditions in schools for teachers and students. The ministry has ignored all constructive approaches at the table and instead lodged a raft of counter-claims, Gainsford said.

“These and many other claw backs are still on the table - hard won provisions such as class size limits are under attack.

“Health and safety issues put forward by teachers have been ignored, including low or no cost claims such as inoculations for teachers.”

Gainsford labelled the ministry’s bargaining tactics as “cumbersome and inefficient.

“There has been 13 days of negotiation over the past three months and we are getting nowhere. In 2004 it took 13 days to reach an agreement which brought industrial peace and a plan for the future – at the moment it appears they have no plan at all.”

Through polling and face to face meetings PPTA had invested heavily in consulting members in every step of the process, Gainsford said.

PPTA members have asked for a settlement with three parts to it: health and safety concerns and teaching and learning conditions to be addressed, all clawbacks to be removed, and a remuneration package that values the job teachers do.

“We will certainly return to bargaining when there is a fair and reasonable offer and a genuine willingness to problem-solve.”

ENDS

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