Otago early childhood educators are backing the New Zealand Educational Institute's bid to ensure kindergarten teachers do not face a 90-day trial period when they start a new job.
The kindergarten teachers claim, lodged yesterday, will be the first employment claim to respond to the National Government's controversial 90-day legislation.
Under the new law, rushed through Parliament without any public consultation before Christmas, an employer will not need to give a reason for firing someone in any worksite of less than 20 people within the first 90 days of their employment.
NZEI national secretary Paul Goulter said the education sector union believed the 90-day legislation was "unfair and unjust" to workers and had serious implications for the education sector where recruitment was a major challenge.
NZEI Otago early childhood caucus representative Toni Clarke agreed.
She said many teachers moved between early childhood education centres to gain promotion and develop their career.
However, she believed the new legislation would make them reluctant to go to a new job because there would be no certainty of lasting employment.
"The legislation will make people far more cautious about moving on. For the good of the sector, we want people to take that leap of faith to move around, to go to a rural centre.
"We want teachers to experience different centres and share different ideas in different communities. The legislation will make moving to other centres a gamble.
"I think that's a real detriment to the sector," she said.
Through the claim, NZEI will be seeking the agreement of the Ministry of Education and kindergarten associations that a 90-day trial period is neither necessary nor desirable, and will not be contained in the kindergarten teachers' agreement.
Bargaining of the claim is due to begin in early February.
