The case for an industry-wide agreement on language teachers pay
and conditions of employment
10 August 2010
Introduction
In June 2010 Unite Union National Director Mike Treen and Language School Organiser John Minto met with the executive of English New Zealand to discuss the benefits of a multi-employer collective employment agreement for language school teachers. These benefits extend beyond teachers to the industry as a whole.
After discussion it was decided Unite would prepare a brief paper on the issues for circulation to ENZ members for their consideration. This is the paper. We look forward to feedback on the concept from ENZ and its member schools.
The problem
The New Zealand language school sector has a wide range of providers. There are many schools committed to education with quality teaching and learning for students. However the relatively deregulated nature of the industry means there are many low-quality providers whose motivation is profit and whose commitment to education is no thicker than a credit card. They see the sector as providing easy income off the work and reputations of more established and credible schools within the sector. These providers have a negative impact on the sector in many ways:
· They undercut quality education across the sector
· Their resources for teaching and learning are poor
· They have weak systems of student management and welfare
· They often use poorly trained and unqualified staff
· Their rates of pay and employment conditions of staff can be medieval
· They undermine the credibility of the sector as a whole
The presence of this large rump hampers progress in development of higher quality education and better pay and working conditions for staff in the sector as a whole. As a rule they undercut and can threaten the viability of higher quality schools.
The failure of the government to regulate effectively against such schools means the sector must take the lead.
One important part of the solution we believe is the establishment of an industry-wide agreement to cover the pay and conditions of employment of teachers in the sector.
An industry-wide employment agreement
An industry-wide employment agreement would be a MECA (Multi-Employer Collective Agreement) under the Employment Relations Act. It would be a single agreement between Unite and several language schools. It would set common minimum standards for pay and conditions in language schools with benefits across the sector.
Benefits for the sector
Consistent, industry-wide pay and conditions of employment would put a lot more pressure on poor quality and poorly performing schools unable to meet minimum standards of employment and we are confident many would exit the sector to the benefit of the industry as a whole.
In practice, once an industry-wide agreement was in place the union would organize a systematic approach to other schools to encourage them to join the industry agreement. The benefit to the Union is the saving of time and resources to negotiate a contract with a new school. The same saving applies to the schools themselves. We would promote the industry-wide collective and pressure would develop on all schools to become “subsequent parties” to the collective.
At the moment this is not possible as the union is restricted to a school-by-school approach which slowly brings benefits for teachers but is too slow to bring the much needed sectoral change.
The mechanics of creating an industry-wide agreement
There are many issues which arise in developing such an agreement but most are easily able to be catered for. For example:
Different pay rates between schools: pay rates can be attached as separate appendices for each school with body of the agreement containing basic minimum rates.
Other individual differences between schools: these could also be dealt with in appendices but over time we’d like to see these incorporated into the body of the agreement.
Getting started: We could approach a small number of schools whose Unite CEAs are coming up for renewal and request these be negotiated into a MECA which would be the starting point for an industry-wide agreement. As other CEAs come up for renewal these could be incorporated into what we would see as a growing MECA.
Schools without a collective agreement: Unite Union would take responsibility for an industry drive to encourage management and staff of these schools to join the growing MECA. Membership of the MECA would be seen as meeting basic quality standards of teacher employment. This should be able to be used as a marketing advantage over schools outside the industry standard.
A role for English New Zealand
As the most significant representative body for English language providers it would be helpful if ENZ discussed this proposal with its members and encouraged their support for the initiative. Experience from other unions is that if employers “buy-in” to industry-wide proposals then it makes the process much easier.
We hope this paper will help understanding of our proposal and will encourage schools to see it as beneficial to the sector as a whole.
We look forward to feedback from English New Zealand and individual members.
John Minto
Unite Union Organiser
6A Western Springs Road
Kingsland
Auckland
Ph (09) 9741739(W) (09) 8463173(H)
Fax (09) 8469509
