Secondary teachers vote to accept Government’s latest collective agreement settlement

Post Primary Teachers’ Association president Chris Abercrombie says the settlement with the Government is a foundation, not a finish line, for pay and conditions. Photo / Supplied

By John Gerritsen of RNZ

The secondary teachers’ union says its members accepted the Government’s pay offer because they wanted to clear the decks before the start of next year.

It said the settlement is a foundation, not a finish line, in terms of teachers’ pay and conditions.

The Post Primary Teachers’ Association announced on Thursday afternoon its members voted to accept a deal providing two pay rises totalling 4.6% over two years.

The offer was put to a ballot after facilitated bargaining with the Public Service Commission.

Association president Chris Abercrombie said the union’s members wanted to settle the pay deal before 2026.

“I think they really wanted to settle it to get a settled start to the year next year,” he said.

“There’s significant change in our sector at the moment. We know there’s curriculum, there’s assessment, there seems to be changes coming out of the Government weekly in the education space, sometimes daily, it feels, and so I think they just wanted a settled environment so they could focus on the other areas they needed to focus on.”

Abercrombie said the settlement provided a better pay rise and fewer clawbacks than offers teachers had previously rejected.

The Post Primary Teachers' Association has accepted a 4.6% pay rise over two years to ensure a settled start to next year. Photo / Alyse Wright

He said the pay rises of 2.5% and 2.1% delivered in January 2026 and in January 2027 were over a term of 24 months, whereas the previous offer had similar increases over a 30-month term.

Abercrombie said the settlement also increased allowances for teachers who had extra duties and did not include a previous Government claim for more teacher-only days outside of the school term.

He said the pay rises kept pace with current inflation but did not get teachers ahead of rising costs.

“So there were some wins, but there were also some clear areas that we didn’t get,” he said.

“So I think we need to see this settlement as a foundation and definitely not a finish line. There are some key areas that we want this Government to be working on and we’ll be watching carefully to make sure they occur in the future.”

Education Minister Erica Stanford said the settlement recognised the effort and hard work of secondary teachers.

Public Service Commissioner Brian Roche said the settlement meant 80% of trained secondary teachers would have a base salary of more than $100,000 from January 28, 2026.

Education Minister Erica Stanford says the pay settlement recognises the hard work of secondary teachers. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Meanwhile, the Educational Institute Te Riu Roa said primary and area school teachers were waiting for new offers and had further talks scheduled for next week.

It said primary principals have been in further negotiations and were expecting an offer, while area school principals had negotiations scheduled and were expecting an offer.

The NZEI said support staff, kaiārahi i te reo, guidance counsellors and therapists rejected offers this week that included pay rises totalling 4.3% over 30 months.

In October, about 500 principals represented by the Primary Principals Collective Bargaining Union accepted an offer that increased their pay by 4.7% over two years.

Primary, secondary and area school teachers held a one-day strike on October 23.

- RNZ