Teachers gain 14.5% pay rise By June Pfister

Last week the government announced that a 14.5 percent pay rise will be given to secondary teachers across the country. According to Stuff.co.nz the government has agreed to put 374 million dollars towards secondary teachers pay agreements.

A media release sent out by the Ministry of Education and the PPTA showed the final recommendation from the secondary teachers collective agreement arbitration panel. The panel’s final recommendation is that the term of the agreement should be from the 3rd of July 2023 until the 2nd of July 2025. The panel also recommends that secondary teachers should receive increases to their base salary. From the 3rd of July this year the increase will be 6 percent, and next year in April there will be a 4 percent increase as well as a 3.9 percent increase in December 2024. In total the base pay move would be 14.5 percent by the end of the proposed collective period.

As well as secondary school teachers’ base pay rising, the panel has stated that a lump sum payment will be on the cards as well. The lump sum will be a one-off gross payment of 5,000 dollars which will be paid to every full-time secondary teacher on settlement of the new agreement. According to Stuff.co.nz, union members will also get a further lump sum of 1,500 dollars.

The money for these pay rises will come from:

• Savings from Ministry of Education departmental funding
• Forecast staffing underspends, mostly as a result of newer teachers on starting
  salaries being employed
• Removal of the option to “bank staffing” for all schools, excluding Kaupapa
  Māori and Māori Medium Education (from July 2025)
• Deferring the Te Ao Marama and Hobsonville Point Secondary School projects
  in the Public Private Partnership Schools Expansion Programme, and rephase
  the current operating funding.

For more information about the pay rise announcement visit the Ministry of
Education’s website which has an in depth media release, www.education.govt.nz.