Teachers angered by pay decision

Press, 13 March 1982, Page 6

Teachers angered by pay decision

“PA Wellington » Angry primary will hold stopfork meetings in the wake' X)f yesterday’s decision to •deny them pay parity with Jpost-primary teachers. • The Government Services ruled yesterday .that they could not have pay Jparity, a move which would Slave cost the taxpayer $3O annually. . The stop-work meetings, to £e held in school time from •next?week, -will outline the and implications •of what the New- Zealand lnstitute describes as the latest attack on primary teachers. . . * Mr David Stewart, president of the •N.Z.E.1., said that the ruling Jwas an “astounding determination.” He said the ‘tribunal’s interpretation of the State Service Condition Jof Employment Act was different from that followed by Jail parties since the act

oecame law 12 years ago. The reaction of primary teachers would be of ex- • treme anger and frustration, and it would have disastrous effects on their morale, he said. “In essence, the new interpretation says that salary relativity for State servants may be established only with employees in : comparable positions in the private sectors. “This ruling has torpedoed, the capacity of more than 100 State service groups for future pay negotiations. I The N.Z.E.I.’s Canterbury . regional chairman, Mr J. S, Baird, said last evening that there would be stop-work meetings in Canterbury. Regional branches expected to get instructions from the national executive. “This is something that has just happened and we will have to wait to hear what, the executive says before we do anything,” Mr Baird said.

Canterbury .‘teachers voted in favour of strikes when pay negotiations broke down last year. . In a majority decision, the tribunal, said that on the balance of probabilities present pay scales were adequate to attract and hold enough teachers at all levels for the ■ Education Department to provide the required services efficiently. The services could be provided efficiently without endangering the health and safety of teachers. There were problems, in some localities which were special to those localities, but the problems would not be solved by an increase in pay- . “On the material before us it cannot be said that there is abnormal ease or abnormal difficulty in recruitment and retention,” said the chairman of the Tribunal, Chief Judge J. R. P. Horn.