Almost 30 classes at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) were cancelled on Monday when TEU members walked off the job.

Staff were protesting against threats by the polytechnic to make staff teach more hours on more days and give up weeks of leave.

With the strike now over the polytechnic and TEU members will return to negotiations. TEU hopes this will be an opportunity to resolve the many misconceptions about the employer’s offer as stated publicly which is not consistent with the offers on the table.

TEU organiser Phil Dodds said about 96 per cent of the 60 members at a paid stopwork meeting on Monday morning voted to take industrial action, and 75 per cent voted to strike immediately.

TEU organiser Phil Dodds said staff at CPIT believe they have made a massive contribution to getting the polytechnic back up and running for students after the earthquakes, and were stunned that their employer was now choosing to attack their working conditions; whilst other employers in the region were rewarding staff for the efforts their staff had made.

“CPIT staff come to work for CPIT because they want to teach. But the leave they get is also an appealing draw card. Many current staff took a pay cut from their previous job to come to CPIT because the leave better matched their family life and circumstances. Now the polytechnic wants to take that away,” said Mr Dodds.

With bargaining about to resume an action committee of TEU members is also planning further actions in case negotiations do not progress.to progress ideas about further actions