September offers to teachers and principals
The Ministry of Education has made new offers to members covered by the Primary Principals' and Primary Teachers' collective agreements.
Teachers' offer at a glance
We received this offer from the Ministry in September 2018.
Recruitment and retention
Our original claim
Address recruitment and retention issues by valuing the work of teachers and ensuring that being a teachers is an attractive career option through:
- Increasing pay by 16% increase over term of CA
- 2 year term
- Renewing the salary comparability clauses with secondary teachers
- Removing the qualifications cap on the salary scale
- Applying increases in the settlement to union members only
The Ministry's offer
- 3 year term from date of settlement
- Increase base salary scale by 3% each year from date of settlement.
- Lift the maximum salary step for Q1 and Q2 teachers one additional step from January 2020
- Merge the first four steps of the salary scale
- Renew the salary comparability clause
- Limit the payment of resource teacher units to one additional unit per person
Key questions to discuss and consider
Do you think the increase offered is sufficient to address the recruitment and retention issues?
Do you think there is enough benefit in the current offer to accept a 3 year term?
Would you be willing to accept an offer that doesn't contain a member only benefit?
Time to teach, time to lead
Our original claim
Make sure teachers have time to teach, are well supported to meet the learning needs of all children and our existing onerous workloads are addressed by:
- Introducing staffing and resourcing for every school to have a SENCO
- Doubling the amount of CRT available to teachers and renaming it 'professional practice time'
- Increase professional leadership staffing to allow more release for teachers in leadership positions
- Reduce curriculum staffing ratio to reduce class size and allow for more teachers to share workload
- Increasing the number of resource teacher positions nationally
The Ministry's offer
- Change the Tutor Teacher Allowance to a Mentor Teacher allowance and make it available in more circumstances
- Enable teachers to take up CoL leadership roles.
- "We understand that your members will be interested in how they will be involved in content and nature of learning support roles and as we discussed we are open to clarifying this with you" - quote from the Secretary of Education.
Key questions to discuss and consider
Is there enough in the offer that would address your workload?
Career development opportunities
Our original claim
Ensure that there are attractive career development opportunities available for teachers through the continuation of the Career Framework Development Work Programme
The Ministry's offer
'Update the PPCA/PTCA Career Framework Development Terms of Reference to reflect the interdependency with the development of the Education Workforce Strategy and milestones for continued work during the term of a renewed agreement'
Other matters
The Ministry's offer
Make maternity grant accessible to the primary care giver (regardless of gender)
The Ministry's offer
Various language changes intended to improve the flow and readability of the agreement
Principals' offer at a glance
We received this offer from the Ministry on 28 May 2018.
Recruitment and retention
Our original claim
Address recruitment and retention issues by valuing the work of principals and ensuring that being a principal is an attractive career option through:
- 16% increase over term of CA effective from the expiry date (16/5/2018)
- 2 year term.
- Conflate U1 and U2 grades into U3.
- Agreement to pass on terms and conditions to non-members 12 months after date of ratification.
The Ministry's offer
- 3 year term from date of settlement
- Increase base salary scale by 4.5%+4.5%+4.4% a year from date of settlement for principals in U1 and U2 schools
- Increase base salary scale by 3% each year from date of settlement for principals in U3 and above schools
- Changes to how salary components are set out in the CA (that don't affect the value of salary)
Questions to discuss and consider
- Do you think the increase offered is sufficient to address the recruitment and retention issues?
Do you think there is enough benefit in the current offer to accept a 3 year term?
Would you be willing to accept an offer that doesn't contain a member only benefit?
Time to lead
Our original claim
Ensure principals have time to lead and our existing onerous workloads are addressed by:
- Introducing staffing and resourcing for every school to have a SENCO.
- Ensure every school has a minimum 2 FTTE staffing.
- Increase professional leadership staffing to allow more release for principals and other leaders.
- Reduce curriculum staffing ratio for years 4-8 from 1:29 down to 1:25 to reduce class size and allow for more teachers to share workload.
Question to consider and discuss
"We understand that your members will be interested in how they will be involved in content and nature of learning support roles and as we discussed we are open to clarifying this with you" - quote from the Secretary of Education.
Would you be prepared to accept an offer that contains no provisions that could help address your workload?
Career development opportunities
Our original claims
Ensure that there are attractive career development opportunities available for principals through the continuation of the Career Framework Development Work Programme. This needs to include a focus on recognition and support for Māori, pasifika and special education roles.
The Ministry's new offer
'Update the PPCA/PTCA Career Framework Development Terms of Reference to reflect the interdependency with the development of the Education Workforce Strategy and milestones for continued work during the term of a renewed agreement'
Other matters
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Make maternity grant accessible to the primary care giver (regardless of gender) Various language changes intended to improve the flow and readability of the agreement (related to surplus staffing, the isolation allowance and technical wording)