Read about the recent changes in the Secondary Teachers' Collective Agreement.
The Secondary Teachers’ Collective Agreement 2022-2025 (STCA or 'the agreement') was ratified by members of PPTA Te Wehengarua on 9 August 2023.
The term of the agreement is 3 July 2022 to 2 July 2025.
Secondary teachers who are members of PPTA Te Wehengarua are automatically bound by the new collective agreement.
From 28 January 2025, the Pastoral Care Time Allowances will be available to provide additional time for secondary teachers directly involved in pastoral care or career guidance for students.
Read our guidance to understand the changes and what you need to do.
For more detailed information see 'Timeline of changes' below.
All full-time secondary teachers employed as at 9 August 2023 who are union members will receive a one-off gross payment of $5,000. This payment will be pro-rated for short-term relievers and part-time teachers. Secondary teacher union members will receive this payment in pay period 12 on 5 September 2023.
Note: the payment for some short-term relievers has been recalculated, see 'What you need to know now' at the top of this page.
For non-union secondary teachers to be eligible for this lump sum payment, schools must ensure that both the employee and employer have signed the new IEA by 8 October 2023.
Schools are also responsible for ensuring that the payroll system reflects the IEA change, enabling secondary teachers to receive the payment. Depending on when paperwork is submitted to EPL, the lump sum may be paid later than 15 November 2023.
Secondary teachers who were on approved unpaid leave as at 9 August 2023 are entitled, on application, to receive the applicable payments on their return to their position, providing that they return either on or before the end of Term 1 2024, or on or before 3 July 2025 for those on parental leave. The payment(s) will be based on the teacher’s FTTE hours as at their last working day before going on leave. The principal or another authorised signatory can apply on their behalf using the EP31 form.
In recognition of the benefits arising out of the parties’ ongoing and productive relationship, including the role of PPTA Te Wehengarua in negotiating terms and conditions for secondary teachers, each teacher who was a union member as at 31 July 2023 and was employed as at 9 August 2023, will receive 2 additional payments.
These payments are as follows:
Lump sum payments to union members will be made in pay period 12 on 5 September 2023 from the funding code that applied on 9 August 2023 (date of ratification).
Where a teacher is employed from a school’s bulk grant or operating funding, the school board is responsible for the payment of any associated costs, including any collective agreement entitlements that arise. This is in accordance with section 580(b) of the Education and Training Act 2020. Please refer to our website for further information:
From 28 January 2024, overall sick leave entitlements will improve significantly.
Sick leave entitlements will be based on a teacher’s employment history as a teacher in any state or state-integrated school. This includes all full-time and part-time employment and any short-term relieving.
It also includes any previous employment covered under Clause 6.2.2, Secondary Teachers' Collective Agreement.
Under the new sick leave entitlement, teachers will be granted an initial allocation of 20 days of sick leave upon their first appointment to a state or state-integrated school. For every 6 months of continuous employment (up to 30 months) teachers will receive another 10 days. After that, they will receive 10 days for every 12 months of employment.
Teachers employed prior to 28 January 2024 will also receive the same entitlement, which will replace previous allocations of sick leave. A teacher’s new sick leave balance will be the new translated entitlement, minus any sick days previously taken. Unused sick leave is carried over.
When transitioning to the new sick leave entitlement, no teacher will be disadvantaged. No teacher will have a sick-leave balance of less than 10 days or less than the balance they had at 27 January 2024.
More information about the new sick leave provision and examples of how translation to the new sick leave entitlement will be calculated can be found in the Collective Agreement.
Sick leave taken will only be deducted from a teacher's entitlement for days that the school is open for instruction and on which the teacher would normally have worked.
Sick leave previously deducted from entitlements, over weekends, will be corrected before the start of the 2024 school year in keeping with the Collective Agreement.
If a teacher exhausts their sick-leave balance before the correction is made, schools may consider using anticipated sick leave. Anticipated sick leave can be applied for using EdPay or via an EP12 form. Any anticipated sick leave will be taken into account when corrections are made.
More information on anticipated sick leave and how to apply for it can be found on the Education payroll website.
From 9 August 2023, the definition of a short-term reliever was redefined as a teacher employed in a teaching position on a casual basis for a period not exceeding three weeks.
A teacher employed as a short-term reliever is paid at a daily relieving rate of 1/190 or an hourly rate of 1/950 of the appropriate annual salary step on the Unified Base Salary Scales (UBSS) for trained teachers and the Base Scale for untrained teachers (pay rates are inclusive of holiday pay).
The maximum annual salary step for short-term relief teachers is currently capped at Step 5 (new step as at 3 July 2023) on the UBSS for trained teachers, and Step 7 on the BSS for untrained teachers. As of 3 July 2023, pay rates for trained short-term relief teachers on Step 5 increased to $366.96 per day. The daily rate for an untrained short-term reliever would be $358.46.
Effective from 28 January 2024, the maximum salary cap will be raised to Step 6 on the UBSS for trained teachers and Step 8 on the BSS for untrained teachers. This means that the daily rate for relief teachers who are eligible to be on Step 6 of the UBSS will be $390.75 and for untrained teachers eligible to be on Step 8 on the BSS it will be $384.67.
Two additional increases to all steps of the UBSS for both trained and untrained teachers are scheduled over the term of the Collective Agreement. The next increase is on 3 April 2024, and the other on 2 December 2024. These two increases will raise the daily capped relieving rates to $422.23 for trained teachers and $415.66 for untrained teachers.
The purpose of the Māori immersion teaching allowance (MITA) is to give practical recognition to te reo Māori as a taonga to be actively protected under Te Tiriti o Waitangi and to recognise the special and valued skills and knowledge kaiako must have to teach the curriculum in te reo Māori.
Secondary teachers are eligible for the MITA if they meet the following requirements:
From 17 July 2023, MITA will increase for Levels 1 and 2. Rates will increase to a maximum of $12,000 per annum for immersion Level 1 and a maximum of $8,000 per annum for immersion Level 2. The rate increase from the base to the maximum rate relates to the highest language level that they are teaching and their years of service at that level. Rates for Level 3 are unchanged.
A teacher can only receive the allowance for 1 level at any 1 time.
Schools were previously required to attest the eligibility of teachers for these allowances yearly. Instead, they will only need to advise in situations where there are changes, by sending an instruction to Education Payroll Limited.
The purpose of the Pacific bilingual immersion teaching allowance (PBITA) is to recognise the additional skills needed to deliver teaching and learning through a Pacific language in a Pacific bilingual or immersion context in a school or kura.
A teacher is eligible for the PBITA allowance if they meet the minimum teaching time criteria and possess the necessary proficiency in the Pacific language required to teach the curriculum for the required period in a Pacific bilingual or language immersion programme.
From 28 January 2024, all eligible teachers who teach in a Pacific language within a Pacific bilingual or immersion unit, programme, or class (as defined by the Ministry in the School Roll Return Guidelines) will receive the allowance. The allowance they get will depend on the highest language level they are teaching and their years of service teaching in a bilingual or immersion setting.
Hours considered for Level 2 can include hours taught at Level 1, but no Level 2 hours taught can be considered for the Level 1 allowance.
The starting allowance (for employees with less than 3 years’ teaching in any level) is $4,000. For Level 1, the allowance increases to $6,000 after 3 years and then to $8,000 after 6 years. Level 2 will increase to $5,000 after 3 years and then to $6,000 after 6 years.
A teacher can only receive the allowance for 1 level at a time.
Schools can apply for this allowance using the PBITA form:
See detailed information about the PBITA across all collective agreements:
See our guide on how to establish a Pacific bilingual or immersion unit in a school:
The Secondary Teachers’ Collective Agreement now expressly provides for a closedown, during which teachers will take their annual leave. This is in keeping with the requirements of the Holidays Act 2003.
A closedown is the time when the school requires all teachers to take their annual leave. All teachers other than short-term relievers have 4 weeks annual leave entitlement. Short-term relievers are paid their holiday pay at the same time as their pay.
Most schools can have only one closedown in a 12-month period. This will be 4 weeks long.
Public holidays will not be counted as a part of the annual leave.
Schools operating an alternative calendar, such as Maramataka Māori, may have 2 or more closedowns during term breaks. Employees must be notified of these closedown dates at the start of the school year.
The conditions set out below, except for the timing of the closedown and giving notice, still apply to the schools operating Maramataki Māori.
Refer to the Secondary Teachers’ Collective Agreement, Part Six: Leave and Part Four: Remuneration.
School boards can contact NZSTA at eradvice@nzsta.org.nz, or on 0800 782 435 (option 2).
Contact the Ohumahi Support Team at ohumahi.support@education.govt.nz or call 0800 114 117 (select option 2) if you have any questions.
From 28 January 2024, schools with two or more school-allocated within school teacher (WST) roles in a Kāhui Ako can release up to 50% to create Kāhui Ako responsibility allowances. Each WST role released will provide 2 Kāhui Ako responsibility time allowances of 0.04 FTTE and 4 salary allowances of $2,000.
A teacher appointed to a Kāhui Ako responsibility role can be allocated a time allowance(s), a salary allowance(s) or both. Unlike a Kāhui Ako within school teacher who has to teach an average of 16 timetabled class contact hours there is no requirement for timetabled hours for teachers with the Kāhui Ako responsibility allowance.
Kāhui Ako inquiry time will be removed.
The Ministry of Education (the Ministry) and PPTA are working together to design the trial of the community liaison roles as described in Clause 4.26 Part Four: Remuneration, Secondary Teachers’ Collective Agreement.
The Ministry and PPTA are working with 66 schools in the trial. These schools are from Tai Tokerau, Tairawhiti, Waikato, Wellington and Otago/Southland. Each school has been allocated community liaison roles (CLR) based on their roll and an allocation formula.
In Term 1 2024 we will determine the shape of the trial and collect agreed baseline data. The trial will start properly in Term 2. The first interim report will be due in May 2025 and the final report due in July 2026 at the end of the trial.
From 9 August 2023, G3+ criteria will include recognition of the National Qualification Framework (NQF) Level 5 and 6 trade or vocational qualifications if the teacher has at least 6,000 hours of applicable trade or vocational work experience.
A teacher will also be eligible to be placed in the G3+ qualification group even without a Level 7 (or higher) subject or specialist qualification on the New Zealand Qualification Framework (NZQF), as long as they have 6,000 hours of work experience in their applicable trade and hold one of the following qualifications or equivalent:
From 3 July 2023, beginning secondary school teachers who progress from provisional certification to a full practising certification during the term of the collective agreement will have the applicable Teaching Council Matatū Aotearoa fee paid for by the Ministry of Education.
The Teaching Council Matatū Aotearoa has made changes to its online registration system, Hapori Matatū, to ensure eligible teachers are no longer charged when applying for full certification from provisional.
The Ministry of Education is contacting eligible teachers who have paid for registration after 3 July 2023. Teachers can also contact TeacherRegistration.Payments@education.govt.nz to arrange reimbursement.
The Secondary Teachers’ Collective Agreement 2022-2025 now expressly recognises learning support coordinators.
The functions of the role are set out in the coordinator role description drafted by the Ministry of Education along with any distinct responsibilities and/or activities that are defined by the employing school, in consultation with other schools in the Kāhui Ako or cluster, where applicable. Each coordinator will be fully released from timetabled duties.
Where a coordinator is allocated additional leadership, management or other responsibilities for learning support, consideration should be given to whether a unit should be allocated in line with the school’s unit allocation policy. The employer must consider the balance of the allocated responsibilities to allow the coordinator to fulfil their role effectively.
The wording of several clauses has been updated to improve the clarity and readability around entitlements.
These clauses relate to Removals Expenses, Parental Grant, Disregarded Sick Leave, acting in a Higher Position other than the Principal, Service Qualification Increment, Regional Health Schools Teachers, Salary Qualification Groups, job-share apportioning and Surplus Staffing in school-initiated restructuring.
No substantive changes have been made to these provisions.
More detailed guidance for the following provisions will be provided closer to the effective dates.
Increases to level 1 and 2 Māori immersion teaching allowance
Union member only lump-sum payments made
Last day for IEAs to be signed to receive lump - sum payment
EPL implementing increases to salary and allowances
IEA changes to be submitted by this date in order to receive lump-sum payment in PP17
Contact the Ohumahi Support team if you have any questions on the changes:
Freephone (NZ only): 0800 114 1175 (option 2)
Schools boards can contact NZSTA:
Freephone (NZ only): 0800 782 435 (option 2)
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