More than 700 Ministry of Education staff who support disabled children are seeking to recover pay deducted during a partial strike last year, with the Educational Institute (NZEI) taking the case to the Employment Court.
The workers lost 10 percent of their pay after refusing to take on new cases or work beyond contracted hours for about three and a half weeks, a move the ministry said was allowed under partial strike deduction provisions.
NZEI argues the deductions were unfair and significantly impacted staff such as speech language therapists, physiotherapists and special education advisors, who say workload pressures were already high.
The ministry has declined to comment on the case while it is before the court, with the hearing scheduled to run for four days.
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