Secondary school teachers in Whakatāne and Ōpōtiki joined an estimated 20,000 educators across the country in a strike on Wednesday, rejecting the Government’s latest offer in collective agreement negotiations.

Members of the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) say the proposed 1 percent annual pay rise over three years falls short of addressing the real issues plaguing the education sector.

In the wake of the strike, Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche said he remained committed to finding a solution with the secondary teachers’ union that was “fiscally sustainable and realistic”.

“Our initial offer clearly hasn’t hit the mark, and we are working on a revised offer.

“We should be under no illusions as to the size of the challenge. The PPTA’s current set of claims would cost taxpayers $1.7 billion over four years. That’s equivalent to an extra $67,000 for every full-time secondary teacher. It’s unaffordable, unreasonable and unrealistic.

“Many of us are products of the public education system. I value teachers and the work they do. I am also committed to fair and reasonable bargaining – but that requires compromise from both sides,” he said.

Natalie Cattell, a technology teacher at Whakatāne High School and regional secretary for the PPTA, said the Government’s offer showed a lack of recognition of teachers’ concerns. But the strike, she said, was not primarily about pay.

“There is no feedback on the conditions, the claims we made: Shortage of teachers, our beginner teacher’s salaries being low, difficulty in retaining teachers. We had claims for pastoral allowances.”

The teachers say they are seeing major mental health issues with rangatahi.

“We got not response on any of it.

“To offer a 1 percent pay rise and no feedback whatsoever on conditions is insulting.”

Among the union’s claims are:
■ Pastoral care allowances to support the hiring of more guidance counsellors.
■ Improved paternity leave, which currently offers male teachers just two days.
■ Restoration of pay equity claims, from which secondary teachers were recently excluded due to changes in criteria.

She also pushed back against claims from Public Service Minister Judith Collins, which have since been corrected, that teachers with 10 years experience earn $147,000. Ms Cattrell said this  applied to “about 30 deputy principals of the biggest high schools”.

“Starting salaries for trained secondary teachers are around $61,000. The top of the scale is $103,000.”

Sir Brian has released figures explaining that a secondary school teacher with 10 years of experience “can earn up to $147,000, including allowances”.

“More than 450 secondary teachers earn more than $140,000 (up to $147,000),” he said.

“The average salary for secondary teachers is now $100,000, up from $93,000 three years ago. Over 8000 secondary teachers earn between $110,000 and $140,000.

Over 15,000 (approximately 60 percent) earn more than $100,000.”

Sir Brian said the offer on the table represented a 3 percent increase over three years, on top of annual pay progression of between 4 percent and 7.5 percent.

“The offer reflects the current fiscal constraints, and the substantial increases teachers have received over the past three years – an average increase of 14.5 percent.

“Over three years the offer provides increases of between $1850 to $3123, or between $7275 and $15,250 for those receiving annual pay progression. “

However, Ms Cattrell said staffing remained a critical issue.

She said 50 percent of principals last year reported being unable to place specialist teachers in front of classrooms.

“This means teachers are often having to teach subjects outside their specialty.  We just cannot attract or retain staff.”

She added that that teachers were moving overseas for higher pay.

“If you move overseas, you get an eighteen thousand pay rise straight away.”

While there has been a slight rise in trained teacher numbers this year, Ms Cattell said the increase was not enough to cover the shortfall – which is about 1300 new teachers this year.

If progress isn’t made, rolling strikes are set to begin from September 13 to 18, including staggered rostering home of different year levels.

“We are striking because we want better conditions for our students. We want our students to have specialist teachers in front of them, to have the support and guidance they need at schools and we won’t be able to have that if we don’t have more teachers on the ground.”