My apologies again for the short notice in calling off today’s rostering. PPTA strongly advised the ministry that issuing notice at such a late stage was impractical to say the least. The ministers issuing instructions to the Secretary for Education nevertheless insisted. The secretary indicated that all negotiations
would have to cease should the action continue. She also promised an offer would be made on class size limitations.The offer would be on the table only if action was called off and would not be made at all if action continued. Rostering called off pending class size offer.
My apologies again for the short notice in calling off today’s rostering. PPTA strongly advised the ministry that issuing notice at such a late stage was impractical to say the least. The ministers issuing instructions to the Secretary for Education nevertheless insisted. The secretary indicated that all negotiations would have to cease should the action continue. She also promised an offer would be made on class size limitations.The offer would be on the table only if action was called off and would not be made at all if action continued.
The executive members of the negotiating team agreed to call off the action in exchange for the class size offer. They have made it clear that the ministry would need to meet the claim made by members if the action is to remain suspended.
The claim on class size is that there would be provisions written into the STCA for a maximum class size of 30 students or 24 in rooms where there were identifi ed health and safety issues and a maximum average class size per teacher of 26. PPTA has claimed 400 additional teachers to provide the resourcing for schools to achieve this from the start of 2012.
The issue has consistently been stated by our negotiators as critical to improving conditions for teachers. As a consequence of the opening of class size discussions and a possible new offer, the branch consultation on the term 1 action has been deferred until after the Executive meeting on November 20.
Kate Gainsford - PPTA president