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New Zealand NZEI Te Riu Roa
Kindergarten teachers in New Zealand are to receive the same pay rates as their primary and secondary teacher colleagues A job evaluation process confirmed that the work of kindergarten teachers had equivalent levels of skill, knowledge, effort and responsibility as primary and secondary teaching.
The pay increases will be phased in over a four year period, bringing total increases of up to 49% for many teachers. This is an indication of how underpaid kindergarten teachers were, compared to their primary and secondary counterparts. Primary teachers achieved parity with secondary teachers in 1997 after a five year campaign supporting primary teachers' collective bargaining. The success of the kindergarten teachers negotiations was assisted by the introduction of industrial legislation that recognised collective bargaining.
The consolidation of the various collective contracts into one national agreement enabled the union, NZEI, and the employers to focus on a national industrial strategy rather than the regional, variable employment contracts of the past.
Before winning pay parity for primary and then kindergarten teachers, there had been a direct correlation between the underpayment of kindergarten and primary teachers compared to secondary teachers and the gender makeup of the respective teaching populations. The proportion of women teaching in each sector is approximately 99% in kindergarten, 85% in primary and 48% in secondary.
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