Pay-cut threat on eve of talks

Press, 4 April 1989, Page 1

Pay-cut threat on eve of talks

By

JENNY LONG

Secondary school teachers will have to take a pay cut if the State Services Commission has its way.

The president of the PostPrimary Teachers’ Association, Ms Ruth Chapman, said teachers had always believed the commission wanted to drive pay rates down.

This had been denied by the commission, however. Yesterday its negotiator, Mr Gerald Minnee, told “The Press,” “We would like to ease the secondary teachers’ pay back, they should be getting less than they are now.”

The admission from the commission came as the teachers’ union was suspending its rolling stoppages, in the belief that progress could be made in award talks. The rolling stoppages had been scheduled to begin today, and affect Canterbury on Friday. Mr Minnee said it was “a matter of concern” that the basic pay rate for secondary teachers was so high.

The average pay for a secondary teacher was $40,000, he said. Secondary pay rates were out of hand, especially in relation to primary rates. “Of course, the secondary teachers would say that could be fixed by bringing all teachers up to the secondary rate. “But there’s an equally simple alternative — easing secondary teachers back.”

Ms Chapman said she did not have the exact figure, but she believed the secondary teachers’ average wage was lower than the amount quoted by the commission.

Beginning teachers start on

$21,000, with annual automatic increments to $39,000. Teachers awarded promotions for positions of responsibility (such as head of department), begin on $40,000, rising to $50,000 for principals of smaller schools, and $66,000 for those in larger schools. Ms Chapman said that when the figures were compared with other occupations, requiring similar qualifications, teachers’ pay rates were not too high.

Mr Minnee said that the Government’s proposal for flexible pay rates within national guidelines to be set by each secondary schools’ boards of trustees, “could be read” as a chance to drive rates down.

"But they can also be seen as a way of more accurately rewarding those people who are performing.” Ms Chapman said the P.P.T.A. had agreed to resume talks, and suspend its action, because the commission had indicated that a settlement did not hinge on pay flexibility. The commission had indicated also that it did not require principals to be excluded from award coverage. The talks are expected to begin tomorrow.

Their resumption was welcomed yesterday by the Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Mr Lange. “The decision to withdraw industrial action is one I commend,” he said.

“I hope now that negotiations will proceed smoothly.”