GRT wins Govt's savings scheme

The government might be encouraging its employees into workplace saving schemes – but that does not yet extend to the most publicised public sector pay contract currently under way.

Superannuation does not form part of the troubled talks between the government and the Post Primary Teachers Association.

That is in sharp contrast to the primary teachers, whose union, the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI), negotiated a superannuation package in its recent pay round with the government.

Details of that scheme have yet to be made public, as the institute has yet to bring its own members up to speed, says NZEI media liaison officer Rachel Benn.

However she confirmed that the institute’s 34,000 members will begin putting part of their pay into the Global Retirement Trust from the beginning of September.

As for the 14,000 member PPTA, a savings package was part of the initial offer from the government but it has since been taken out, according to spokesperson Phillipa Lagan.

"That was mutually agreed to, although we felt that the money they were offering to put into that saving scheme could be better used elsewhere," she told Good Returns.

Superannuation could well be part of the next wage round between government and teachers, she says, although this time around the main focus has been on teacher workload and the new NCEA qualification.

The government – and indeed much of the savings industry – sees workplace savings as the best way of boosting New Zealand’s savings record. Minister of Finance Michael Cullen has spoken of the government leading this process through pay deals with its own employees. The Global Retirement Trust, a master trust, was set up several years ago to provide a superannuation vehicle for public servants when the Government Superannuation Fund was closed to new entrants in 1992.

Rob Hosking is a Wellington-based freelance writer specialising in political, economic and IT related issues.

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