It’s been more than a year, but educators’ pay negotiations aren’t over yet, with primary principals refusing to accept an offer where they would continue to be short-changed.
After a year of bargaining, stand-offs and historic strikes, primary school principals have accepted the Government’s latest pay offer.
But primary principals were disappointed by what was essentially an unchanged offer, and have voted to reject their deal, meaning they will continue in negotiations, and possibly take further industrial action.
The principals’ decision will come as somewhat of a shock to the public, after NZEI recommended the full package to its members.
NZEI president Lynda Stuart said the union had to recommend the whole package to its members in order to get the win for teachers, but it’s no surprise to those in the sector that principals were not going to accept being significantly short-changed.
Teachers achieved a massive win, in a return to pay parity with their secondary counterparts – something that was now entrenched.
The new pay scale would see teachers receive an immediate pay increase of between $200 and $4000, from July 1. And by 2021, teachers’ pay would have increased by a minimum of 18.5 percent.
“This is not a working party. It’s something different… We’ve gone into this with great hope, and also in good faith.”
The other significant change to the deal was an accord, which gave teachers eight teacher-only days throughout the three-year agreement without extending the school year, and removed some of the appraisal requirements which members believed to be the biggest burden.
The accord was also a commitment from the Government to work on longer-term issues, including workloads and teacher supply.
This has been a sticking point in over a year of negotiations, with Education Minister Chris Hipkins saying those longer-term issues could not be fixed overnight. However, while teachers had leverage through negotiations and industrial action, they refused to walk away without a tangible improvement, or commitment to improve, these issues.
Stuart said she was confident the Government would stick to the accord, and it would deliver real outcomes.
“This is not a working party. It’s something different… We’ve gone into this with great hope, and also in good faith.”
So while teachers have moved from overwhelming rejecting the Government’s previous offers to “resoundingly” accepting the latest deal, principals – who account for 2000 NZEI members – have “strongly rejected” what was on the table.
Primary principals did not have pay parity with their secondary counterparts, with the gap sitting around two percent.
And principals of some small schools and kura, were paid less than deputy principals, or senior teachers, in larger schools.
This had been the situation for a long time, but the current offer exacerbated that discrepancy, Stuart said, adding that the difficulty and complexity of the job had been determined by the size of the school, for too long.
Principals were calling the Government back to the negotiating table, where they would be demanding pay parity with secondary colleagues and the collapse of the bottom three steps of the scale, which was linked to the size of the school. This would lift the base rate for principals in recognition of the core work all school leaders did, regardless of the roll size.
NZEI principals’ lead negotiator Louise Green said the current system did not recognise “a teacher is a teacher, is a teacher”.
“Some primary principals have raised serious questions about how we incentivise people to become principals when some teachers are going to earn more money than them.”
Principals were the centrepoint and face of the school, and were often the glue in those small communities.
That needed to be recognised in order to attract and retain good leaders across all schools, including in rural areas and kura, Green said.
National Party education spokesperson Nikki Kaye said the rejection of the deal by principals was concerning.
“Many principals will be supportive that teachers have had additional increases but are asking questions as to why they didn’t secure more favourable terms…
“Some primary principals have raised serious questions about how we incentivise people to become principals when some teachers are going to earn more money than them. There are real issues of career pathways for principals.”
The results of the area school teachers and principals’ vote will be announced on Friday. Secondary teachers and principals will conclude their voting – through paid union meetings – on Friday. PPTA is expected to announce the results of the vote during the weekend.
