We understand that the Tertiary Education Commission had $46 million unspent at the end of 2009. Adult and Community Education funding, $16 million per annum, was cut in 2009 supposedly because of financial priorities.

The unspent TEC money would have fully funded Adult and Community Education for almost three years. The Government's decision to cut Adult and Community Education was not about its financial priorities but about its political priorities of user pays.

Adaire Hannah
Wellington High School PPTA branch

Pay Parity for Part Time Teachers

If you believe in equal pay for equal work, then you need to insist that part timers get pay parity in the next pay claim. This means that their paid for non contact hours (1 hour for every 4 hours of teaching time) are included as part of the settlement, and are paid for by the Ministry out of the general salaries account.

So, what non contact time are part time teachers currently entitled to? According to the current contract, all part time teachers get an 11% loading on their teaching time to compensate them for any extra duties they need to perform as part of their job. This is the equivalent to 1 hour of non contact time for every 9 teaching hours. This is what the ministry pays for. Schools also need to "endeavour" to provide additional hours so that these teachers do have pay parity. This time allowance is not guaranteed. It is up to inidividual schools. The key word here is "endeavour".

Any time allowance that schools do decide to give must come out of the schools operating account, not from the Ministry. This is not fair on the school's principal, Board of Trustees, teachers or students. In these tight economic times it is completely within the schools rights for prinicipals to say to part time teachers, "Sorry, we just can't afford to pay you for the extra non contact time you need to give you pay parity with other teachers."

The current 11% loading provisions hark back to the times before full time teachers gained 5 guaranteed non contact hours. Back in the days when teachers would regularly teach 22 hours a week. And at that time the 11% loading was fair. It isn't now.

To put this into perspective, if a school is not providing the additional non contact time out of their own pocket then a part time teacher who teaches 16 hours a week gets paid 71% of a full time salary despite teaching 80% of a full time teaching load. Where is the equity in that?

Additional non contact time for part time teachers needs to be included in the contract as a right, as proposed by the working group that the Ministry set up over 4 years ago, and then conveniently decided to ignore. It shouldn't be left up to individual schools to decide. And individual schools should not have to find the money for this out of their own pockets.

At least the current contract removed the loop hole where schools could employ a teacher part time for 21 teaching hours and pay them 93% of a full time salary!

Sharon Henry
Wellington High School PPTA member

The current pay rates and conditions of secondary teachers are not significantly enhanced by the 2010 Claim. To attract and retain quality teachers pay and conditions need to be significantly improved or the state education sector will decline. This is already happening in countries like the USA. Employers, CEO s and Govt argue that their substantial remuneration packages are necessary to attract and retain the best person for the job. The same argument carries for teachers etc.

By arguing this I am not saying that we, teachers, want to get ahead at the expense of the other sectors of the workforce because we are more deserving. PPTA members need to support other workers seeking improved pay and conditions or fighting against layoffs. One of the best supports we, as union members, can give to other workers or unemployed is to build a climate of militancy. Such a climate would give other sectors of the workforce the confidence to fight for their real needs.

Adaire Hannah, Wellington High School PPTA branch