Photo: 123RF
Former teachers working at the Education Ministry are angry the ministry is refusing to count their teaching service when calculating redundancy entitlements.
RNZ understands Secretary for Education Iona Holsted has discretion to count up to five years prior teaching service when considering staff for severance.
However, staff have been told the secretary is using that discretion to not recognise that service during the current round of proposed cuts.
RNZ understands the ministry is recognising prior service in other government ministries.
The decision will affect former school teachers who left their teaching jobs to take up roles in the ministry, such as assisting with the roll-out of NCEA changes.
One ministry staff member told RNZ they were angry and the government's cuts to the ministry would wreck the careers and lives of talented teachers.
They said some former teachers moved to the ministry only this year and would receive no redundancy payment because they had worked there for less than 12 months.
The Education Ministry did not explain whether the decision applied to all ministry divisions, and how many staff might be affected.
It said in a statement: "The ministry has five collective employment agreements (including the PSA agreement), as well as individual employment agreements for staff whose roles are not under coverage of a union.
"We are adhering to the contractual provisions of our employment agreements. We continue to work with individuals and their representatives to respond to queries about contractual provisions and how they apply."
The ministry said it had proposed cutting 755 roles, including 316 that were vacant.
The ministry said some of the cuts proposed in its Curriculum Centre were due to the postponement of changes to the NCEA, and were not in response to the government's order for a 7.4 percent cut to spending.
The Public Service Association said it was aware of the situation and was seeking legal advice.
It said previous service should be recognised in redundancy calculations.
"There are a number of former teachers who have recently left teaching to take up roles at the ministry and now find themselves facing possible redundancy which is such a waste. These are education professionals with experience of teaching that the ministry should retain," it said.
"The ministry must recognise prior service with other government ministries and schools when it calculates staff severance entitlements. Under the contract, the decision around recognising teaching service for retiring/cessation leave is up to the Secretary for Education. In our view, the fair and reasonable approach for her to take is to recognise teaching service given its relevance."
The association said it was concerned that the ministry was proposing to dismiss education experts and replace them with contractors, which would cost more in the long run.
Meanwhile, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's annual survey this week said schools needed more support from the Education Ministry - a recommendation similar to that made to the former Labour government by the Tomorrow's Schools review of the school system in 2018.
"The system seems to be missing a sufficiently deep and well enough funded intermediate support layer to help schools and teachers put policy into action, design detailed curriculum guides and assessments and deliver them as well as spreading best practices more generally," the report said.
"Expanded regional offices could work in partnership with schools to help improve student learning, including sharing effective practice across schools, strengthening data analysis, supporting family, local community and iwi engagement, and enhancing two-way communication between schools and government agencies," it said.
"More specialist subject support to lift teacher capacity to design and implement the curriculum they will teach is needed. The ministry used to have specialist subject advisors and they should be re-instated."
The report said New Zealand should not increase total spending, so the Education Ministry should increase its front-line resources by re-prioritising its spending.
