The union representing 20,000 high school teachers has given the Government an 'F' on its new collective agreement offer.
Teachers say it fails to address the cost of living or lure new teachers to the classroom.
On Monday 500 of Dunedin's high school teachers sang from the same song sheet - not happy with the Government's new collective agreement offer.
"We had about 40 points that we were looking at in our claim and they have not addressed a significant portion of those," said PPTA Otago chair Amanda Elwood.
Students were sent home early today, as the first of 35 paid union meetings nationwide met in Dunedin, Queenstown and Auckland. The union is demanding the Government throw more money and support their way.
"The offer they've made isn't meeting inflation, just not even meeting the amount of inflation taking place and that's no doubt why the National Executive has rejected this offer on our behalf," PPTA Southland chair Bill Claridge said.
Part of the Government's recent offer includes a $4000 pay increase in the first year and a $2000 increase in the second.
"We'll continue to negotiate with teachers in good faith. I don't think any Government has ever reached an immediate settlement with the teacher unions on the first offer so we'll continue to talk to them," said Education Minister Chris Hipkins.
The union also wants more workload control and more staff to keep up with the increasing number of struggling students.
"I'm sure there are principals around who would say 'yeah for me it's a crisis because I need to start next year with a full staff of trained and qualified teachers'," Claridge said.
Six months of negotiations and still no deal.
"It's a bit poor for a first offer," Elwood said.
The Government has just three weeks left in this school year to earn a pass mark from the PPTA.
