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Many South Island secondary and area schools are closed as teachers take strike action, with their union saying the latest pay offer isn't good enough.
The industrial action on Tuesday is the first of three strikes by members of the Post Primary Teachers' Association and the Educational Institute.
On Wednesday, they will stop work at area and secondary schools in the North Island up to Taranaki and Hawke's Bay, and on Thursday the strike will affect the rest of the North Island.
The action continues despite a Ministry of Education pay offer on Monday, made during bargaining facilitated by the Employment Relations Authority.
It would take the salary for teachers on the top pay rate to $100,000 by the end of 2024 - an 11 percent increase for the estimated two-thirds of secondary teachers on the top rate, the ministry said. Overall, increases ranged from 11-14 percent.
The offer also include significant improvements to conditions, including allowances for pastoral care to provide greater support to students, cultural leadership allowances and a Pacific bilingual immersion teaching allowance, general manager of employment relations Mark Williamson said in a statement.
But acting PPTA president Chris Abercrombie said teachers needed a pay increase that matched the cost of living.
The offer for staff at the top of the pay scale of an 11 percent increase over three years did not do that, he told Morning Report.
"With the fact that the cost of living has increased so much, that is still effectively a pay cut by the end of 2024 for most of our teachers."
The ministry had "remixed" its previous offer, taking some things off the table to fund a third year pay increase, such as part-time paid non-contact for teachers.
The ministry said it expected the union to suspend industrial action while its members considered the offer, but the PPTA said it did not provide a "clear pathway towards settlement" and the strikes would continue.
How long the industrial action would go on was up to the union membership, Abercrombie said.
"But at the moment, the deal that the ministry have given us isn't good enough and they rejected out of hand our counter-proposal."
"We're at a bit of an impasse at the moment unfortunately, but hopefully we can find a way forward."
See the full list of schools covered by strike notices for Tuesday on the PPTA website.
He believed teachers still had the support of parents and communities.
"They know what we're fighting for, we're fighting for their children's education, it's as simple as that."
Meanwhile, primary and kindergarten teachers were voting on possible settlements to their collective agreements.
