Kindy teachers strike again

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 14, Issue 657, 8 October 1996, Page 12

Kindy teachers strike again

Fourteen hundred Kindergarten teachers around the country and throughout the Waimarino are yet to settle a pay dispute and will strike again today (Tuesday) if something is not settled. "The employment contract expired in November 1995. The government offer to this group of tertiary trained, almost wholly women workers is derisory. The effective pay increase offered is less than 2 percent over 26 months. This is at a time when the turnover of teachers in kindergartens is approaching 50 percent," local NZEI Te Riu Roa early childhood spokesperson Dawn Osman said. "The govemment has shown scant regard for kindergarten teachers and the small children who attend our centres. We have significantly revised our pay claim and the annual additional cost to the government of this claim is a very modest $3 million," Ms Osman said. Teachers in Auckland are on a separate contract to the rest of New Zealand, and their employment contract has been settled with increases ranging from 4.2 to 12.7 percent. "The pay increases were only possible because the Auckland Kindergarten Association decided to eat into its reserve funds. Such action is clearly not sustainable. Other associations have not got large reserves and

can't afford to pay more, even as a one off," said another spokesperson, Cynthia Slowley. "At the same time as we have been trying to settle this contract, Cabinet has handed over $10 million to wealthy men to indulge their yachting interests," she added.