Photo: Richard Tindiller
Hundreds of primary school principals have rejected a government pay offer.
They say they are holding out for a curriculum change allowance similar to the $15,000 grant secondary school principals won earlier this week.
Educational Institute lead negotiator Martyn Weatherill told RNZ the offer had the same 4.6 percent pay rise as the secondary deal, but did not include the allowance.
He said that was the key reason the union's members rejected the offer.
"There is a massive amount of change happening right across the education sector. Secondary principles have been acknowledged and have been given an allowance for dealing with change management in NCEA. Primary principles have been ignored," he said.
Weatherill said NZEI members wanted a bigger allowance than secondary principals won.
"Our principal members not only have to do the administrative change management, but they have to do it with significantly less resourcing in terms of staffing to secondary schools, but also many of them have to teach on a daily basis," he said.
Weatherill said the government's proposed pay rise was also unacceptable because it did not keep up with rising costs.
Weatherill said the union expected negotiations would resume in January at which point the government would present an offer that included a curriculum change management.
He said settlement of secondary teachers' and principals' collective agreement did not weaken the primary principals' position.
"We have a significant majority of principal members in the primary school. We have been very, very clear with our claims around we need recognition, we expect recognition for the amount of work that is being asked of us and that's that's not going to change just because secondary schools have settled," he said.
Some primary principals have already accepted a new collective agreement.
About 500 principals represented by the Primary Principals Collective Bargaining Union ratified an offer worth 4.6 percent over two years or 4.7 percent on a cumulative basis.
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