Pay talks break down

Press, 19 February 1988, Page 1

Pay talks break down

By

JENNY LONG

Post-primary teachers will hold stop-work meetings next week after a breakdown in their pay talks. Christchurch teachers will meet on February 25 at 2.30 p.m. The decision on whether schools will close during the meeting will be made later by each school’s board of governors. The talks broke down over Government proposals for restructuring, including performance pay, and higher pay in some subject shortage areas. These factors would set teachers against one another, said the president of the P.P.T.A., Ms Ruth Chapman. The proposal which gave power to principals to set pay rates had been removed from this pay round, said the State Services Co-ordinating Committee yesterday. Ms Chapman said teachers had been offered either a 3.5 per cent pay rise, with no restructuring, or restructuring plus 5 per cent, with improved conditions including an increase in ancillary staffing. The P.P.T.A.’s counter-claim of 7.5 per cent, which included increased study-leave provisions, was dismissed “out of hand,” Ms Chapman said. “I am concerned that many teachers who have been waiting for the outcome of this round will now decide that they would be better off out of the service,” she said.

Secondary schools were already short of 400 teachers. Ms Chapman said the P.P.T.A. had been surprised when restructuring was reintroduced after a January agreement that it would be part of talks after a pay settlement. Further industrial action was one option which would be put to the meetings next week, Ms Chapman said. “We will tell members that they are not alone in this, and other educational sectors are facing the same response,” she said.

Ms Alison Timms, of the State Services Commission, said the 5 per cent salary adjustment offered to teachers was the equivalent of a 7 per cent package.