Primary teachers and principals to vote on new offers

Primary teachers and principals to vote on new offers this week

31 March 2019

Primary teachers and principals begin online voting tomorrow (1 April) on whether to accept the latest offers from the Ministry of Education.

The offers are only slightly different from what was previously offered in November, with the government making no change to the total amount of spending available for a settlement.

NZEI Te Riu Roa members will be considering the offers very carefully in light of the crisis in recruitment and retention of teachers, and the heavy workload that is driving many out of the profession.

Primary teachers and principals had been scheduled to vote on the offers at paid union meetings throughout the week of 18 March, but those meetings were cancelled out of respect for the victims of the terror attacks in Christchurch.

It was also important for teachers and principals to be in their schools and able to offer continuity and support to their students in the aftermath of this horrific event.

Primary teachers and principals will now vote on the offers in an online ballot. Voting will close at 6pm on 5 April, with the results to be announced next week.

The new offers
For primary teachers
The Ministry has given primary teachers two new offers that are largely the same as the offer members rejected in November 2018, except:
Either:

An extra half day of classroom release time (CRT) per term for the duration of the agreement only (in addition to their current 10 hours CRT per term).
This compares to NZEI Te Riu Roa's claim for CRT to be replaced with professional practice time (PPT) of 20 hours per full time equivalent teacher per term.

OR

A new maximum step for Q3+, Q4 and Q5 teachers brought in on 27 February 2020 (12 months earlier than the previous offer).
Elements of the offers that remain unchanged from November:
• 3 year term from date of settlement
• Increase base salary scale by 3% each year from date of settlement
• Add an additional new salary step for Q3 teachers to new max step 9 and add an additional new salary step for Q3+,Q4, Q5 teachers to new max step 10 from either February 2021 (option 1) or February 2020 (option 2)
• Lift the maximum salary step for Q1 teachers by 4 steps to the new max step 9 and Q2 teachers by 3 steps to the new max step 9 from February 2021
• Merge the first four steps of the salary scale
• A one-off gross payment of $500
For primary principals
The offer is the same as what was rejected by members in November 2018, except:
For U1 and U2 principals in the very smallest schools, the Ministry has offered 10 hours of classroom release time per term from 2019.
Elements of the offer that remain unchanged from November:
• 3 year term from date of settlement
• Increase base salary scale by 4.5%+4.5%+4.4% a year from date of settlement for principals in U1 and U2 schools
• Increase base salary scale by 3% each year from date of settlement for principals in U3 and above schools
• Changes to how salary components are set out in the CA (that don’t affect the value of salary)
• Additional operational funding for schools with less than 2 FTTE to employ a second person during contact time
• One-off gross payment of $500
You can compare and contrast the new offers with the Ministry's previous offers and NZEI Te Riu Roa's claims here.

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