Request for Information

Written By: - Date published: 6:46 pm, September 13th, 2010 - 9 comments
Categories: education, Unions, wages - Tags:

The ODT reports that the PPTA is taking a day of strike action on Wednesday and after a bit of digging it seems they are striking everywhere but Christchurch at the same time.

Now I know for a fact that workers don’t strike without good cause but I’ve not seen much detail of the negotiations. I know that there’s an inflation pay rise at stake, that teachers want free flu vaccine and moderated class sizes and I know that the government has told the ministry there’s no money (well not for the people that teach our children).

But after a look on the PPTA site and a trawl for their media releases I can’t seem to find out much more except that they are calling for the savings made from not paying salary during the strike to the Christchurch quake relief fund.

It could be that I’m just not looking in the right place or that the media has been slack in reporting the detail but with strike action only two days away I’d like a little more information and I reckon a lot of other people would too. And if the union doesn’t provide it the government’s spin doctors will.

So if any of you have fact sheets or any other information it would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to post in the comments section.

9 comments on “Request for Information ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Rowan 1
    13 September 2010 at 8:00 pm

    http://www.ppta.org.nz/index.php/collective-agreements/teachers-bargaining

    If you follow the link above, you will find the PPTA claim (the pdf document second item down in the list) that was rejected in full (I believe, but you should clarify that with a PPTA exec member) by the current government during negotiations.

  3. Crumble 3
    14 September 2010 at 6:52 am

    Also I hope this helps

    1. We believe that as a country we must invest in our children’s education: Our claim looks beyond the recession and asks the Government to invest for the long term.

    2. We believe schools should be places of safe and effective teaching and learning:

    Research on class size shows significant positive effects of smaller class size. We worry about health and safety, behaviour and the limitations on practical work and teaching methods that come with large classes.

    We want schools resourced so classes can be limited to 30 students. In addition, we want classes in hazardous situations to have no more than 24 students to keep them safe.

    3. We believe that all of our schools should be able to appoint and retain well qualified and trained graduates: We want teaching to be a first choice career.

    New Zealand teachers are sought after internationally for their success with students and hundreds go to teach overseas each year. Despite the recession, one in 10 secondary teaching jobs advertised in the first term of this year were not filled.

    Salary rates set now will determine whether our schools are left short of teachers as the economy recovers. We think that an increase of 4% balances the long term needs of schools with the temporary economic position. It is also within the range of recent teacher pay increases in comparable overseas countries.

    4. We believe that the students should have the benefit of teachers who are up to date: We ask the Government to invest in professional development so that we can improve outcomes for students. We seek the inclusion of good professional learning guidelines in our agreement.

    5. We believe that teachers should get a fair go: We are very lucky at many of our schools – our laptops and annual flu vaccinations are funded by the school.

    Others are not so fortunate. We are asking that all schools pay the lease on the laptops that are provided to teachers for their work-related duties and fund annual flu vaccinations for teachers.

  4. IrishBill 4
    14 September 2010 at 7:17 am

    Thanks. It looks like I was a bit slack on educating myself.

  5. IrishBill 5
    14 September 2010 at 9:18 am

    Just email it to thestandardnz (at) gmail (dot) com

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