Primary Teachers' Collective Agreement

This document sets out the agreed components of the settlement of the Primary Teachers’ Collective Agreement 2019-2022. This agreement has been settled between the Secretary for Education and the New Zealand Educational Institute Te Riu Roa (NZEI Te Riu Roa) and shall be subject to ratification by NZEI Te Riu Roa members pursuant to section 51 of the Employment Relations Act 2000.

The terms outlined in this document are valid for ratification by NZEI Te Riu Roa members, provided ratification is confirmed and the new collective agreement is signed no later than 3 pm on 1 July 2019.

1. Term
The Primary Teachers’ Collective Agreement shall be effective from 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2022.

A joint pre-bargaining process with NZEI Te Riu Roa and Post Primary Teachers’ Association Te Wehengarua (PPTA) will begin four months before the expiry of the first collective agreement of the Primary Teachers’ Collective Agreement (PTCA), Secondary Teachers’ Collective Agreement (STCA) and Area School Teachers’ Collective Agreement (ASTCA), to discuss the Unified Base Salary Scale (UBSS) and any other matter relating to bargaining.

2. Remuneration (clause 3.2)

• Increases to the base salary scale

The parties agree that the increases to base salary will take effect from 1 July 2019, 1 July 2020 and 1 July 2021 respectively.

Below is the table outlining the changes to the base salary scale from 1 July 2019.

Unified Base Salary Scale for Trained Teachers:

• Qualification Maxima for Q3+ Q4 and Q5

The parties also agree that from 1 July 2020 a new step will be added to the base scale, increasing the Q3+, Q4 and Q5 maximum steps one step accordingly from step 10 to step 11.

Teachers, who as at 1 July 2020 have been on their qualification maximum step (Q3+, Q4 or Q5) for at least 12 months will receive a salary increment of one step on that date.

• Qualification Maxima for Q1, Q2 and Q3

The parties also agree that from 1 July 2020 the Q1 maximum step will move from step 6 to step 10, the Q2 maximum step will move from step 7 to step 10 and Q3 maximum step move from step 9 to step 10. Thereby from 1 July 2020 the qualification maxima for Q1, Q2 and Q3 will be step 10.

Teachers, who as at 1 July 2020 have been on their qualification maximum step for at least 12 months will receive a salary increment of one step on that date. This date will become the teacher’s anniversary date for pay progression purposes and a teacher will be entitled to progress to the next step as per clause 3.7, and subject to their applicable qualification maximum step provided in clause 3.2.

• Transitional Arrangements

Transitional arrangements and consequential changes to the Primary Teachers’ Collective Agreement needed to incorporate the changes to the base salary scale have been agreed by the parties [See wording attached at Annex 1].

• Untrained Employees

The parties agree to increase the entry salary rate and the maximum salary rate for untrained employees in clause 3.4 as follows:

3. Resource Teachers (clause 3.6.2)
The parties agree to include wording to ensure payment of the additional unit upon appointment to resource teachers is limited to one additional unit per person, paid at the substantive rate for all new appointments from 1 July 2019.

4. Unified Base Salary Scale (clause 3.1)
The parties agree to replace clause 3.1 approaches to remuneration comparability with a new clause 3.1 Unified Base Salary Scale from 1 July 2019 to reflect the movement to a unified base salary scale for trained teachers.

5. Mentor Teacher Allowance (clause 3.27)
The parties agree to reframe the tutor teacher allowance to mentor teacher allowance from 1 July 2019, and extend the circumstances when a teacher can be designated as a mentor teacher, to better align the resourcing time allowances allocated to schools currently to the payment of the mentor teacher allowance.

6. Kāhui Ako Leadership Role (clause 3.33)
The parties agree to introduce a clause to enable teachers appointed to the Kāhui Ako Leadership role, by agreement of the Secretary for Education, to access the relevant provisions of the Primary Principals’ Collective Agreement, aligning provisions across the sector.

7. Parental Leave (clause 4.5)
The parties agree to amend the Parental Provisions to reflect gender neutral language from 1 July 2019. The intention of the amendment to the Parental Grant payment is that any teacher (regardless of gender) who is the primary carer receives the grant.

8. Isolation Allowance (clause 3.15)
The parties agree to amend the isolation allowance, including the deletion of Appendix 1: Isolation Allowance Rates, from 1 July 2019 to simplify the range of rates to two allowances..

Note: Puketitiri, Taharoa, Little Barrier Island, Kapiti Island, Kawau Island, Motuihe Island, Motutapu Island, Rakino Island and Rangitoto Island are not included in clause 3.15.4 or 3.15.5 as there is no longer a school at these locations.
Note: Omarama has been deleted from the locations listed in Appendix 1 because it is now in Category 2, i.e. its location is between 101-150kms from a population of greater than 1,500 people.

9. Surplus Staffing
The parties agree to review the surplus staffing provisions to improve the flow and language during the term of the new collective agreement.

10. Additional Payment
The parties agree that all full-time employees who are members of NZEI Te Riu Roa and are covered by the Primary Teachers’ Collective Agreement as at 13 June 2019 are entitled to receive a one-off gross payment of $1,500. The payment will be pro-rated for part-time teachers based on their full-time teacher equivalent (FTTE) as at 13 June 2019.

Employees who are members of NZEI Te Riu Roa and are covered by the Primary Teachers’ Collective Agreement as at 13 June 2019 and on that day were on approved leave under Part 4 of this collective agreement are entitled, upon application on their return, to receive the one-off gross payment of $1,500 on the return to their position providing that they return on or before 28 January 2020.

Short-term relievers, as defined in clause 3.23.3, covered by the Primary Teachers’ Collective Agreement as at 3pm on 13 June 2019 shall be entitled to receive the one-off gross payment of $1,500 pro-rata based both on their employment status and on the proportion of the total number of school days (140) between 24 October 2018 to 30 June 2019 inclusive, for which they have been employed.

A teacher may not receive more than $1,500 gross in total.

11. Accord between the Ministry of Education, PPTA and NZEI Te Riu Roa
The parties agree to enter into an accord, alongside settlement of the collective agreement with the purpose of transparently giving effect to building a high trust environment where the teaching profession is highly regarded, sustainable, and is fit for now and the future of learning.

12. Letter to Boards about member only provisions
The Secretary agrees to write to all Boards of Trustees that employ primary teachers employed on a promulgated individual employment agreement to remind each Board that it has no legal authority to pay the Additional Payment to any non NZEI Te Riu Roa members and that Boards must not do so.

13. Technical changes
The parties agree to make any technical changes that are mutually agreed prior to the collective agreement going out for ratification.

The parties on signing this document acknowledge, subject to any subsequent agreed editorial and technical changes, that this reflects the agreements reached in the settlement of the Primary Teachers’ Collective Agreement 2019-2022.

Signed in Wellington on 13 June 2019:

Alex Davies
Advocate
for NZEI Te Riu Roa

Meg Johnston
Advocate
for the Secretary for Education

Witnessed:
Patrick Ikiua
for NZSTA

1. Transfers and Removals

The parties acknowledge that the intent of clause 6.6 is that reimbursements will be made for costs in relation to the sale and purchase of the teachers’ primary place of residence and not for holiday homes or investment properties but note that, in giving effect to the intention of the clause, consideration may be given to an individual teacher’s circumstances.

2. Professional Standards

The parties acknowledge that the professional standards used for the purpose of pay progression agreed to as part of this agreement are interim standards. The parties also acknowledge that the development of a set of standards for teachers could be achieved by the Teaching Council. The parties agree that it is desirable in the medium term for there to be a single set of standards for teachers. Therefore the parties agree to work co-operatively to review and if necessary to revise the standards in the agreement to ensure that the standards in the agreement are wherever possible consistent with any standards subsequently developed.