Govt to drop work clauses in deal with teachers?

Press, 15 August 1980, Page 1

Govt to drop work clauses in deal with teachers?

By

KEVIN HART

r, NZPA staff correspondent

The Government has apparently offered to drop the offending clauses of the State Services Conditions of Employment Amendment Bill but efforts to confirm this drew only a sharp 4i No comment” from the Minister of Education (Mr Wellington) yesterday.

It appears that the decision was relayed to the Government caucus by Mr Wellington when it met yesterday morning and he has subsequently discussed the matter with the Association of Teachers in Technical Institutes, the body which started the row over the bill. The A.T.T.I. had moved to exploit a loophole in the State Services Conditions of Employment Act, 1977, to take a case over class-contact hours (the time spent before a class) to arbitration. The case is set down to be heard by the Government Services Tribunal on August 27. The Government moved to shut the loophole by introducing the bill in late June, saying that teachers had never had the right to seek arbitration on the allocation of time within ordinary working hours. Since then other teacher groups have thrown their weight behind the A.T.T.I. case, a move which is believed to have alarmed some Government backbenchers. It seems likely that the

Government’s offer to drop the bill’s offending sections would be in return for the A.T.T.I. agreeing to drop its plans to put a case to the tribunal. The intense debate on the issue prompted Mr Wellington to cut short a visit to South-East Asia but on Wednesday he was still voicing his determination for the bill to pass through Parliament unchanged. He said then that there had been extensive discussions on the bill in both the Cabinet and the caucus and that he was likely to be questioned against yesterday. The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) said after the caucus meeting yesterday that Mr Wellington had not been called on to say more than two sentences. It is believed that those two sentences contained the decision to drop clauses two and three of the bill, the offending sections. The other clauses of the bill deal with minor machinery matters. An official statement on the Government’s decision is expected this afternoon

and an A.T.T.I. spokesman said yesterday that his group expected to comment on the matter then after a ■ meeting <of its executive.-

A decision by the Government to back down on the bill would be seen as something of a victory for the increasingly confident band of Government backbenchers which has developed a penchant for closely examining Ministerial decisions. Many of the backbenchers believe the bill was poorly drafted and questioned its possible application to all State services, not just teachers.

The decision, would, be greeted similarly by teacher groups, which have shown .'an increasing trend towards militant action in recent years. Representatives of the A.T.T.I. met Mr Wellington just before 11 a.m. yesterday and left Parliament just after midnight. An A.T.T.I. spokesman said proposals would be put to the association’s executive today.