Tutors at Northtec have begun strike action this week, action that will be disruptive for the institution and students.

“Tutors never want to affect their students in negative ways, but they want their employer to show respect and put a decent pay offer on the table” says Jill Jones, Tertiary Education Union advocate for the collective agreement negotiations .

The TEU members have been negotiating with their employer for months. They are some of the lowest paid academic staff in the tertiary education sector and have had years of very low pay rises.

The tutors are currently not taking attendance registers or doing headcounts and not entering or assisting in entering grades/marks into aPlus. These actions continue until next Friday.

“The institution says “We put the success of our ākonga and our team at the centre of all we do” but the pay offers year-in-year-out aren’t evidence of the management living these values.”

“This disruptive action can easily be avoided if the employer comes to ot the table with a pay offer that shows they value the hard work staff put in every day at Northtec, ” says Jones.

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