Kindergarten teachers to make wage bid

Press, 27 November 1982, Page 12

Kindergarten teachers to make wage bid

PA Wellington Kindergarten teachers will make a bid for pay relativity with their primary colleagues as soon as the wage freeze is lifted, the Kindergarten Teachers’ Asociation has said. The association's case has been prompted by the recent Government Services Tribunal decision to grant primary teachers pay relativity with their secondary counterparts. This effectively gives primary teachers an average salary increase of 18 per cent backdated to last November. The association’s president, Ms Jean Pearson, said that it was realised the pay relativ-

ity case would be a long, hard battle. “We will make the first steps when the wage freeze is lifted,” she said. “We believe in equal pay for equal qualifications. On the new pay scales we are about $3OOO below primary teachers. Kindergarten teachers will feel they are not adequately remunerated for their work. There is general dissatisfaction with the low pay rates.” Ms Pearson said that the primary teachers’ successful bid - which will effectively cost the taxpayer $3O million a, year — launched fears in the association that it might face recruitment problems.

The president of the PostPrimary Teachers’ Association, Mrs Edna Tait, said it was pleased for the primary teachers, that after long negotiations they had been successful. “However, we question the decision to re-establish 1975 relativity.' We feel it would be more appropriate to reexamine the 1982 conditions,” she said. “Much has happened since then in areas such as teacher workloads and conditions of service.” The national president of the New Zealand Educational Institute, Mr Gerry Brown, said that the union’s victory in the case for relativity had been a tremendous morale booster to primary teachers. “We have had tremendous support from schools throughout New Zealand,” he said.