Govt to reply to teachers’ letter

Press, 8 March 1978, Page 11

Govt to reply to teachers’ letter

j PA Wellington 1 The Government will give ' the Post Primary Teachers’ ’ Association the report from pthe Education Service Com-] mittee setting out the com- . mittee’s views on teachers’ • salary claims. H The Minister of Education |i(Mr Gandar) said .jthat this would meet the •main point of a letter from ,;the P.P.T.A. discussed by the [i Cabinet yesterday. f Mr Gandar said that the; . P.P.T.A., in its letter giving: i reasons for not wanting its , claims to be heard by the] - Government Service Tribunal: at this stage, had said it] > was not fully aware of the! > reasons why its claim had I not been supported by the! ,j Education Service Committee. i “The Government has [offered the P.P.T.A. every! | assistance in bringing its] case to the Government 5 Service Tribunal at the; earliest date,” Mr Gandar. . said. ‘

“The report of the chairman of the Education Ser- ■ vice Committee will now be: prepared and a copy made i. available to the P.P.T.A. •iThis report will contain the ■ E.S.C.’s views on the whole ' salary claim. This meets the main point of the P.P.T.A. • letter. “There now seems no reason why the P.P.T.A. should i not proceed to take the case •Ito the tribunal early in I April if it so desires,” Mr :] Gandar said. J Earlier, the Prime Minis:!ter (Mr Muldoon) said that lithe long letter from the i; P.P.T.A. considered by the | Cabinet yesterday did not in : I itself constitute reasons for I]not going to the tribunal. 1 It was rather a list of things the P.P.T.A. alleged • had happened over quite a •long period, he told a news [conference after the Cabinet ; meeting. :• “I don’t think the letter in 'itself constituted a valid • reason for not going to the ‘tribunal,” Mr Muldoon said.