Day-long strike won't hurt students - Manawatu schools

The Government refuses to buckle to teachers' pay demands, instead urging the PPTA to call off the strike and return to the bargaining table.

Post Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA) members overwhelmingly voted to strike during union meetings last week, and if a pay deal isn't reached, further industrial action is likely.

Teachers want a 4 per cent pay rise, while the Ministry is offering a 1.5 per cent rise.

The PPTA's demands also include free flu vaccinations, safer schools, and an exemption to the 90-day trial period for teachers.

Negotiations have reached a stalemate and it seems likely a strike will go ahead on September 15, as kids are beginnning to prepare for their end-of-year exams.

Manawatu principals are reassuring parents that disruption to students' education will be minimal during the one-day strike.

Most Manawatu secondary schools would cancel or limit lessons during a strike day, with principals urging those who stay home to study for exams.

Awatapu College won't close, but will restrict what classes it offers.

Principal Tina Sims said she'd be anxious about the impact on students if the PPTA and Ministry couldn't reach an agreement.

Freyberg High School principal Peter Brooks said school would be opened in a limited capacity. Essential lessons would continue to run.

At Palmerston North Boys' High, classes will operate as normal, and relief teachers will be brought in if necessary.

The Ministry of Education said it was disappointed with the PPTA's decision to strike. "We continue to urge the PPTA to call off its planned strike [and] come back to the table," said group manager Education Workforce Fiona McTavish.

"After the PPTA rejected our first offer, we presented a revised offer that addressed their main concerns. Their response has been to take the option of strike action out to their members."

The ministry considered its pay offer fair in the current economic environment.

In the 10 years to March 2010, overall average teacher pay increased by $24,243, and in the last bargaining round, in 2007, the PPTA won a 12.5 per cent cumulative increase over three years.

"These increases outstrip other public sector and private sector increases over the same period," Ms McTavish said.

The PPTA argues that after 15 years' experience, a New Zealand teacher's salary is 17 per cent lower than the OECD average.

PPTA president Kate Gainsford said she hopes it will not come to strikes, but the ministry has been unwilling to engage in talks.

"We have to see some shift on the remuneration, and would have to see all the clawbacks off the table," she said.

- © Fairfax NZ News