Labour’s education spokesperson, Willow-Jean Prime, says government deflection is undermining the inflation-induced pay cuts being offered to high school teachers.
Yesterday, secondary teachers went on strike nationwide, rejecting a government offer of just a one percent annual pay rise—described by unions as the lowest in a generation.
Prime says the strike is linked to recent pay equity changes that cancel existing claims and raise thresholds that block new ones.
“The teachers absolutely have a right to feel like this is an insulting pay offer and that they are not being valued by this government, because it’s attack after attack in terms of their pay and their conditions,” says Prime.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says teachers’ wages have increased 14.5% since 2022, with 60% now earning six-figure salaries.
