Secondary Principals' Collective Agreement

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Email: employment.relations@education.govt.nz

 

Schedule A: School Closure

Secondary Principals' Collective Agreement
Effective: 1 December 2022 to 1 May 2025

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    1. The principal shall be given written notice of no less than three months of a decision to disestablish their position.
    2. During the notice period the board shall assist the principal to locate suitable alternative employment in the New Zealand education service, and will meet the reasonable costs of the principal attending relevant interviews where such costs are not otherwise met.
    3. Where, prior to the disestablishment of the position:
        1. A reasonable offer of employment in the education service is made to the principal; or
        2. The principal applies for a position in the education service for which they are suitable and declines an offer of appointment to the position;
        3. The board's responsibilities under these provisions shall be fulfilled and the principal's employment may be terminated from the date of disestablishment with no payment of compensation.
    4. Where the principal is appointed to a suitable alternative position in the education service and a transfer of location is involved the principal shall be entitled to removal expenses in accordance Part Ten of this agreement.
    5. Where a reasonable offer of employment is not made prior to the expiry of the notice period the principal shall be offered the following options:
        1. Redeployment as a supernumerary teacher for up to 40 weeks;
        2. Retraining in a course approved by Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga | Ministry of Education for up to 40 weeks;
        3. Severance payment; or
        4. Long Service Payment (the intention of this option is to enable the principal to withdraw from the education service).

Details of these options are:

  • Redeployment / supernumerary employment
    • Supernumerary employment is employment for a period of up to forty (40) school weeks). A principal whose position is disestablished who has elected to be employed as a supernumerary teacher shall be entitled to supernumerary employment in accordance with the following provisions:

        1. The principal will be employed as a supernumerary teacher at her/his existing salary for a period of forty (40) school weeks from the effective date of the disestablishment of the position (normally at the beginning of term one of the following year);
        2. The principal may elect to take up her/his supernumerary employment at the same school or at any other school at the request of the principal and with the approval of the original employer and the board at the other school. A principal employed as a supernumerary teacher shall have no entitlement to any vacancy arising in either the school where employed at the time or the originating school.
        3. The employee’s supernumerary employment shall cease upon appointment to a new position or upon the employee choosing to resign or at the expiration of the forty (40) school weeks, whichever is the earlier;
        4. Where a supernumerary teacher is appointed to a new permanent teaching or principal position and a transfer of location is involved, that employee shall be entitled to normal removal expenses provisions provided that this entitlement shall be exercised once only for each supernumerary period;

      Note: Attention is drawn to Part 10 in relation to removal expenses.

  • Retraining
    • Where a principal’s position is disestablished the principal may elect to take a course of study approved by the Secretary for Education that will enhance or upgrade the principal’s skills as a secondary school teacher or principal, provided that:

        1. The principal will continue to be employed at her/his existing salary for a maximum period of forty (40) school weeks from the effective date of the disestablishment of the position (normally at the beginning of term one of the following year);
        2. The principal is employed as a supernumerary teacher during this period and has the rights and obligations of a supernumerary teacher except as specifically provided in this clause;
        3. There is no requirement on the employer to meet any costs and expenses of training, including course fees;
        4. The principal will provide evidence of attendance at the approved course of study where required by the employer. The employer may make enquiries during the retraining period to establish that the employee is undertaking the approved course of study;
        5. Where the approved course of study is for a shorter period than forty (40) school weeks the principal is required to attend the school as a supernumerary teacher in periods when the school is open for instruction.
        6. Where the course of study commences later than the effective date of disestablishment, the principal is required to attend the school as a supernumerary teacher in periods when the school is open for instruction, except in special circumstances approved by the employer;
        7. Where the principal chooses to withdraw from the course before its completion, further employment shall cease, except where the principal and the Secretary for Education agree that there was just cause for the withdrawal the employee shall return to the school as a supernumerary teacher for the remainder of the retraining period.
        8. Where the course of study is completed prior to 40 weeks, the principal may elect to terminate their supernumerary employment with no further compensation.
  • Severance Payment
        1. If the principal has up to three (3) years service they shall receive three (3) months ordinary pay (taxable salary); or
        2. If the principal has over three (3) years service and up to five (5) years service they shall receive four (4) months ordinary pay (taxable salary); or
        3. If the principal has five (5) years service and over they shall receive six (6) months ordinary pay (taxable salary).

      PROVIDED that if the principal, following disestablishment of their position commences permanent employment in the education service before the expiry of the period in respect of which the payment was made (i.e. three months, four months or six months), the principal shall refund the portion of the severance payment which represents the difference between the period in respect of which the payment was made and the number of weeks without employment.

  • Long Service Payment
        1. If the principal has twenty-five years service or more they shall be paid a lump sum of six months ordinary pay (taxable salary) plus one weeks ordinary pay for each complete year of service. The maximum amount payable under this clause shall not exceed salary for one year.

      PROVIDED that if the principal, following closure, begins permanent employment in the education service before the expiry of the period of weeks for which a long service payment has been made, the principal shall refund the portion of the long service payment which represents the difference between the period for which the payment was made and the number of weeks without employment.

        1. "Service" for the purposes of the provisions in clause 5 shall mean:
          Service in a full-time capacity as a teacher in any
            • State School
            • Integrated School
            • Kindergarten (within the meaning of the Education Act 1964)
            • Technical Institute
            • College of Education
            • University
            • Agricultural College
          or, where a proportion of that service was part-time, on the basis that 80 hours equals one month’s service and 1,000 hours equals one year’s service. Non-permanent or permanent part-time service of twenty hours per week or more shall be credited as full-time service; and shall include:
            1. Service credits for childcare, where the principal had resigned or took leave to care for his/her children, on the basis of one third credit for each year of such leave up to a maximum of five years credit; but shall exclude:
            2. Any period of service in the education service (as defined in section 10 of the Education and Training Act 2020) that ended with a payment of severance or long service leave.

      NOTE:
      For the purposes of Part 6A of the Employment Relations Act 2000 it is agreed that in the context of the education service the only situation which may be argued to be a "transfer of the business of the board" would be in the case of an amalgamation or merger to which the provisions above would in any case apply.