File photo. Photo: Unsplash
More than 700 Ministry of Education staff working with children with significant learning needs will put the government's new partial strike pay-docking laws to the test.
The legislation - which passed last month - means employers can again deduct workers' wages, including for industrial action that doesn't amount to a full strike.
NZEI Te Riu Roa is the union representing the service managers and field staff including speech therapists, physiotherapists, behaviour support specialists who undertook a two-hour strike last Tuesday, which led to a reduction in their pay packets.
They plan to continue industrial action by working to rule, with service managers to work no more than 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week and refusing to assess new requests for support; and field staff working a maximum 7.6 hours a day, 38 hours a week, not taking on any new cases.
NZEI in a statement said it was filing a court injunction to try stop the ministry from docking 10 percent of their wages.
Member and speech language therapists Conor Fraser said the ministry should not be taking punitive action and instead invest in learning support specialists.
"It is an overreach for the ministry to dock 10 percent of specialists' pay for a month when we are doing our contracted hours. The law is clear that employers should not dock pay when a strike involves a refusal to work overtime," he said.
In a statement, Ministry of Education acting leader (hautū) corporate Rob Campbell said the ministry was acting in accordance with legislation governing partial strike action.
"Deductions are being made only in relation to field staff and service managers whose union has formally notified the Ministry of a ban on undertaking any work on new cases.
"Our priority remains the uninterrupted delivery of support to children and young people. We value the critical work our staff do, and the Ministry is doing everything it can to minimise the impact of industrial action on our most vulnerable students.
"We continue to encourage open dialogue and remain committed to reaching a fair and sustainable solution. We have requested, and NZEI have agreed to attend urgent mediation," Campbell said.
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