The PPTA conference, which I went to on the weekend but didn’t get around to posting about until it occurred to me that I’d just written about it in an e-mail anyway, so why not post it too, was very busy and fully programmed from morning to evening. But I did manage to get out in the latter part of the evenings to wander around Cuba Street. My finest achievement was to discover a chocolate shop that’s also a cafe, then to find that an old girlfriend was working there. And by “old girlfriend” I mean Michelle, the first girl I ever asked out, back in the sixth form. So that was interesting. In a good way, I mean.

The actual conference consisted of planning for the coming year, which will see another round of contract negotiations. Given what’s happened in the last few weeks, it looks rather like the Government won’t be wanting to make any more enemies, and nobody’s forgotten the industrial action last time. Assuming things go well, we should be able to restore some of the basic things teachers ought to have, like superannuation (it hasn’t been widely reported, but a standard package is being prepared for all government employees) and write-offs on student loan interest.
The thing that most pleases me is that we’re finally going to be asking for religious holidays to be included in the list of reasons why teachers must be granted leave. At the moment Christian holidays are assumed, and there’s a special provision for Jewish holidays (presumably because someone once asked for it), but there’s no general provision. Baha’is, Muslims, Buddhists and others can ask, but it’s currently at the discretion of the Board of Trustees, and mine has, in an apologetic sort of way, told me that it’s too hard for them to deal with. I raised the topic with several Exec members at last year’s conference, and they agreed there was a serious equity problem when I pointed it out. So I like to think that it was me who prompted that one. It seems pretty likely that the Government will agree to it, because from their perspective it’s going to look like the alternative is a messy case with the Human Rights Commission.
I was also pleased to see attention shifting back to the role of PPTA as a professional association rather than just a trade union. I’ve always felt a bit iffy about being a Baha’i in a union, because it can so easily drift into oppositional politics - something we endeavour to avoid.

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