Former Southland Boys’ High School vice principals get paid

A former assistant principal at the Invercargill school says he and two of his colleagues don’t want other teachers to have to go through what they have.

That’s why they took their old school to the Labor Relations Authority, an action that has resulted in Southland Boys’ High School having to pay a combined $ 164,000 to three of its former vice principals.

Three longtime Southland Boys’ High School staff members, Linda Dalzell, Steve Jackson and Alan Bailey, lost their jobs in early 2019.

They all had deputy director roles.

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Following the appointment of Chancellor Simon Coe in 2017, it was decided that instead of four Deputy Directors, he wanted a single Associate Chancellor, with another three management positions below that.

The trio complained to the Labor Relations Authority that they had been unfairly fired as a result of the process.

Since then, ERA has issued a decision agreeing that their dismissals were unjustified.

The school has been ordered to pay each teacher compensation of $ 28,000 and $ 25,679 in lost wages, with an additional interest of $ 1,165 on that payment.

Coe told Stuff on Thursday that the board was receiving legal advice regarding the ERA’s decision.

When asked if that meant they were seeking to appeal, Coe added again that they were receiving legal advice and could not comment further.

The ERA decision stated that the restructuring was genuine, but the school did not follow the correct consultation process after the proposal.

The findings say; “It is clear that the working relationship between the rector and each of the applicants was tense and ineffective.”

While the report describes a lack of communication by Coe with his then-senior management team, the report’s author, Peter van Keulen, was not prepared to infer that the chancellor’s restructuring proposal was designed to eliminate the deputy directors.

Jackson told Stuff that he was satisfied with van Keulen’s decision.

Although he said that the reality was that they would not get their jobs back and that his career had suffered a major setback when he lost his job as assistant director.

Jackson was upset that they were having difficulty obtaining information from the school when they were preparing their comments as part of the consultation process.

“It was absolutely heartbreaking. I walked through those doors for 35 years as a student and as a teacher, and we were just gone. “

Jackson said it had affected all three of them a lot.

He said that they had all worked hard over a long period of time to build their careers and move up the ladder. Having that taken away suddenly hurt.

Added to that was the lack of job opportunities at Invercargill at that deputy level for them to pursue.

Jackson has had to start teaching in the classroom again and last year said he could only learn 14 hours a week.

He hoped that by taking action through ERA, he would help others in the education sector in the future.

“We don’t want any of our other colleagues across the country to have to go through what we have,” he said.