Whether your early childhood service is party to a collective agreement or not – you need to know the ins and outs of the law on rights and duties in dealing with unions.

In early childhood education, the union that represents early childhood teachers and education support staff is NZEI. You may have cleaners, cooks and staff that belong to, or are interested in joining other unions such as E tū, Unite, and the Tertiary Education Union if your service is part of a tertiary education institution

Here's information for your early childhood service on obligations and rights under the Employment Relations Act (it includes changes that take effect from 6 May 2019)

Contents

1. Your obligations to provide union information to prospective staff and all new employees
2. Treatment of staff who belong to a union
3. Cases of unjustified dismissal
4. 30-day rule
5. Obligation to enter into a collective agreement if asked by a union
6. The rights that union representatives have, what you have to do in response and can’t be asked to do
7. Financial matters
8. Problems or questions?

You may also be interested in reading survey findings on why teachers would want to join a union

To keep reading, login with your ECE Service's member username and password.  If you don't know what your service's login is ask your manager or team leader