Education Minister Chris Hipkins has lashed out a primary teachers unions after they voted to go ahead and strike from Monday.
Primary school teachers will walk of the job for the second time in three months next week.
The latest pay offer would have given teachers around a $10,000 pay rise bringing the average salary up to about the $85,000 mark, Newshub political reporter Jenna Lynch says.
- Reject Govt pay offer, union tells secondary school teachers
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At a press conference on Friday Minister Hipkins says he was disappointed with teachers' decision to strike.
"Well the government has done absolutely everything we can to avoid this strike, I'm disappointed the union are going ahead with the strike anyway.
"There aren't many work forces in New Zealand at the moment that would be taking strike over a ten thousand dollar pay rise because if they think that the Government is going to continue to offer more and more and more money, then they're out of luck."
The latest offer doesn't address class sizes which is an issue teachers want to be taken into consideration.
Newshub.
