Whanganui primary school teachers say more work needs to be done after pay settlement

Whanganui teachers took part in a nationwide strike in March. Photo / Bevan Conley.

Whanganui primary teachers are pleased an agreement addressing pay and conditions has been reached with the Ministry of Education but say there is still room for improvement.

The latest offer includes a 6 per cent pay bump in July, with two more increases to follow next year.

A lump sum payment of $3000 (before tax) will be paid next month.

Union members are set to get an additional $1500 on top of that.

It was the fourth offer put to teachers after a negotiation campaign that included the largest education strike in this country’s history.

Turakina School teacher Lysha Brennan said she had mixed feelings about the settlement.

“There are a lot of good things to come out of it and I’m glad about the (increase in) release time. That’s going to help me a lot.”

Classroom release times have increased from 10 to 25 hours per term.

“It was a key thing we were negotiating for. It actually starts next year so we’ll have to soldier on until then,” Brennan said.

“Last night I was working on a slide show until 9pm. It will be great to have a bit more time - for our sanity and for our own families.”

NZEI (New Zealand Educational Institute) Te Riu Roa union president Mark Potter said there were some significant wins for teachers in the deal as well as a number of outstanding areas that needed more investment from the government.

“The biggest win was more release time - the first increase since 2005.

“The work demands on teachers have sky-rocketed in the last couple of decades and this means teachers will have more time to plan, assess and do individual work with students.”

The union would continue to push forward on the issues of teacher pay, parity of remuneration for leadership and specialist roles, and improvement in staffing ratios, he said.

Churton School early literacy support teacher Sue Kenny joined thousands of others around the country on the teachers’ strike in March.

She said the Labour Government had been good to deal with so teachers didn’t “want to bite the hand that feeds us too much”.

“If it was another political party we probably would have got zilch,” Kenny said.

“It’s been taken down from a three-year (settlement) term as well so we get to negotiate again in two years.”

She said the vote to accept the latest offer was pretty evenly split among union members.

“We did get it over the line but I think there are a lot of teachers that are still unhappy - especially the more experienced ones.

“You look at Australia being $120,000 (top of the pay scale). We’ll be lucky to get to $100,000 after 25 year-plus.”

Brennan said union members realised it was a difficult climate to be negotiating in and it could be even harder if there was a change of government in October.

“I think a lot of people will still be frustrated because they feel the support isn’t there for the tamariki right now, but at least it’s there and we’re talking about it.

“We know things do take time.”

The two additional pay increases will come in July (3 per cent) and December (between 2 and 3 per cent) 2024.

There will also be increases in the Māori Immersion Teacher Allowance and the introduction of the Pasifika Bilingual Immersion Teaching Allowance.

Like Potter and Brennan, Kenny she said one of the biggest wins was the teacher release time.

The new hours will be phased in next year.

“Most people write up reports at home at the weekends,” she said.

“It’s face-to-face between nine and three but there is so much other administration stuff that can’t be done when you’re teaching.”

The next major step would be having central government-funded teacher aides, Kenny said.

At the moment, that money comes out of a school’s budget.

“I feel you need at least one teacher aide in the classroom.

“We have four to six children with learning needs and one teacher can’t do everything, unfortunately.”