Teacher aides to join nearly 40,000-strong strike next month

Wednesday, 17 September 2025

Teacher aides will strike for the first time next month as primary school teachers and principals, school support staff and Ministry of Education specialist staff go on strike in what the union says is a first-time collaboration.

The Educational Institute (NZEI/Te Riu Roa) confirmed nearly 40,000 members would be going on strike on October 23 after primary school teachers rejected the Government’s latest collective agreement offer.

Ally Kingi, a teacher aide based in Central Auckland and support staff negotiation team leader, said it was difficult for teacher aides to strike because they weren’t big in numbers.

“It’s a pretty good feeling knowing we'll all be going out together with our teachers and our principals and our ministry of education field staff.”

he school support collective agreement included executive managers, librarians, library assistants, administration support staff, science technicians and teacher aides.

The group of 37,000 workers had been negotiating with the ministry since October and rejected an offer on May 16 of a $1 increase to hourly rates over three years (60 cents in year 1, 15c in year 2, and 25c in year 3).

The ministry had presented three offers that were “overwhelmingly” turned down by members, Kingi said.

While pay was a concern, job insecurity was also a challenge because of the way teacher aides were funded – through a school’s operations grant, rather than centrally funded like teaching staff.

Their salaries came out of the same budget as the power bill “so principals have to make really tough decisions”, she said.

“We've been working for a really long time to try and make our jobs more secure, and it's quite disheartening just not being able to make any movement on that.”

Having been a teacher aide since 1998, the biggest change was the increase in the needs of children coming through school. A big win for the professions had been pay equity, “because it saw our work being properly valued”.

But the changes to pay equity in May meant while they had claims settled, it scrapped the reviews and there was already a 17% gap in some areas.

The Government said it would be addressed in negotiations but it hadn’t, Kingi said.

“So that's led us to this point where we're going on strike … they've come out overwhelmingly to say they'll lose the day's pay for the greater good.”

Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche said it was “disappointing“ NZEI members decided to strike when the offer was “a very good deal” for primary teachers.

“I’ve made it clear we are willing to talk – it’s clear NZEI’s intent the whole time has been to strike.”

The union never came back with a counter proposal, Roche said.

“I wonder if the union has told teachers there will be no back pay so the longer the strikes go on the less money teachers will get in their pockets – and their pay will be docked for the period they are on strike.”

The average salary for primary school teachers increased from about $85,000 three years ago to more than $94,000 now, with approximately 57% of full-time primary teachers now earning between $90,000 and $110,000, and 16% earning over $110,000.

Roche also pointed to the Government's biggest investment in learning support in a generation with an additional $2.5 billion over the next four years as part of Budget 2025.

But NZEI president Ripeka Lessels said members were convinced the Government was not listening to the needs on the ground. They were firm in wanting more support in the classroom, working with children of diverse needs.

There was still room for negotiation and time for the Government to make an offer, Lessels said.

“While the commissioner is saying it’s a fair offer, our members have stated that the money is essential, but in this case, it’s not sufficient.”

She was not aware of any communication that there would be no back pay for teachers.

Teacher Liam Rutherford, one of the NZEI primary teacher negotiation team leads, said the Government failed to match cost of living increases.

The offer for teachers was a flat rate increases of $1300 this year and $1200 in the new year – increases of between 2.7% and 4.1% over two years for those on steps 1-8 of the pay scale, while teachers on step 9 and 10 would receive a 2.5% pay increase this year and 2.1% next year.

Principal negotiation team leader Martyn Weatherill said he and his colleagues loved their jobs and would rather spend time in school, but they would carry out a one-day strike to demand investment in education.

Conor Fraser, a speech language therapist and a member of the Ministry of Education (MOE) field staff negotiation team, said her main concerns were the overflowing workloads and inadequate staffing.

In August, specialist learning staff at the ministry rejected a 0% pay offer after going on a two-hour strike alongside Public Service Association (PSA) members in July and worked to rule for the following month. The ministry responded by docking their pay by 10%, Fraser said.

MOE staff include speech and language therapists, early intervention teachers, occupational therapists, psychologists that provide support and strategies to teachers and care givers for children with learning and communication disorders.

“We're always conscious that at the other end of the wait times, these are kids that need support to participate in early childhood and in school,” Fraser said.

In some regions, the waitlist was more than 12 months.

She acknowledged the Government’s investment in learning support roles but they were yet to see what it would look like and how far it would go in addressing the needs.

“In order to attract people into those roles, we need to have pay and conditions that is attractive to them – and retain our current staff.”