Teacher negotiations

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Permalink Reply by Ann Hoglund on December 2, 2010 at 10:12am

Jenny
The teachers have been in negotiations since My 2010, their new agreement is proposed to run from from 1 Dec 2010 until 15 August 2012 if it is ratified.
The surveys in schools have been calling on Support Staff to discuss issues for our negotiation of our agreement which runs out in March next year, there will be member meetings late February/early March next year to discuss the claims that the team will take forward. Your site rep will receive all these details. Hope this has clarified your concerns- Ann

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Permalink Reply by Jenny on December 2, 2010 at 12:32pm

Ann,
Thank you for your reply, and I do realise that we have been invited to discuss issues for our negotiation. As you can see from my signature above, I AM the support staff site rep, and we held our meeting to fill in our survey.
My issue and concern is that the agreement runs out in March, and yet we are not meeting until February to sort out what we want to negotiate. If we are not meeting until February/March, and then only to decide on what the team will take forward, when, exactly, do the team intend to meet with the government? Because by then our agreement will have run out again.

So, while you have answered my queries, no - you haven't waylaid my concerns. I do however stand corrected that their agreement does not run out until August 2011 (I had misread an email from NZEI I received last night) - but it still does not explain why we aren't starting our negotiations until after this one has run out.

I apologise for my negativity, but I feel NZEI has priorities that do not include support staff, and I think that is a shame.

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Permalink Reply by Ann Hoglund on December 3, 2010 at 9:40am

Hi Jenny

I can assure you, we are a priority. There is a process whereby we submit claims to the government before the agreement runs out, this falls into the timeline . The negotiating team will be meeting in the next couple of weeks to go over the claims suggestions from members, it is these suggestions that are taken to the members meetings in February and it is from these meetings that the negotiation team will formulate the claim to be presented to government and formal negotiations on the members behalf will take place. As a long serving (23yrs) support staff member I can assure you that the members interests will be to the forefront in the coming negotiations. We got a fairer deal last time but we are still looking to go further to get the Fair Deal we deserve.
Regards Ann

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Permalink Reply by Jenny on December 3, 2010 at 11:45am

Ann

Thank you for your reply.

I may come across as really negative, but it is only because I believe we are worth so much more than we are being offered/getting at this time, and sometimes it is frustrating, not always knowing EXACTLY what the timeline is, and what is happening behind the scenes.

For example I got an email today on an email listserv I am on (not NZEI related, but school related) forwarding on an email that some people got and others didn't. Sometimes just KNOWING something is happening and when and why is enough without knowing the actual WHAT.

Thank you for your patience with me :)
And I look forward to hearing what is going on in the near future :)

Jenny

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Permalink Reply by Linda Jordan on December 4, 2010 at 1:41pm

The Teachers collective which stands at present is dated - 12 December 2007 – 30 June 2010. This is why they went into negotiations.

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