Teachers not in real world, says PM

Secondary teachers' plans to strike next month show "how disconnected they are from the real world", Prime Minister John Key says.

The teachers' support for a day-long strike was very disappointing, he said yesterday. "Quite frankly, we've offered them a deal which is consistent with what nurses and police have got."

Hundreds of secondary schools will be closed on September 15 as teachers strike for the first time in eight years.

Plans are also in place for rolling strikes later in the year and teachers could boycott after-school meetings if they run too late.

The action comes after secondary school teachers voted overwhelmingly to strike after rejecting the Government's pay offer.

But Education Minister Anne Tolley has called the strike action extremely disappointing and said it would not be welcomed by parents.

Post Primary Teachers' Association president Kate Gainsford said the ministry had set the tone for negotiations by proposing clawbacks.

Discussions about such matters as capping class sizes and free influenza immunisations for teachers had been shut down.

"It's not just a problem about what teachers have got in their back pocket. There are a whole range of claims in our package, and none of them have been addressed."

Parents would support strike action because issues like class size were a community concern, Mrs Gainsford said.

Teachers would conduct an awareness campaign but would not push their position in school hours or at parent-teacher interviews.

The PPTA was still open to negotiations before September 15.

"We've called off strikes before, we'll do it again if we see movement of the kind that we need to see. The Government needs to make some decisions because they've put their negotiators in a tough place if they're not going to look at the envelope of what is being allowed to work with."

Secondary teachers last went on strike in 2001-02, during a 16-month battle with the Government. Teachers held three one-day strikes.

Mrs Gainsford said it was possible the current industrial action could last just as long.

Further action was planned for the last school term, including boycotting after-school meetings that ran over time and a series of rolling strikes, she said.

Ministry spokeswoman Fiona McTavish urged the PPTA to call off the strike. "The ministry has made a very fair and reasonable offer. We have been clear with the PPTA from the start about the Government's expectations for bargaining this year, and about the tight fiscal environment ..."

- © Fairfax NZ News