Poipoia te kakano, kia puawai

No! While union membership is optional, your employer cannot do anything to influence your decision to join in any way.

They are also obliged to let you participate in union activities, such as paid union meetings and discussing union business at your workplace.

Your fees are based on your rate of pay and your regular hours of work. This is then spread across the year into regular payments depending on your preference.

If you work irregular hours, we take an annual average of hours worked and base your subscription rates on this figure.

We can pause your membership payments if you are on parental leave, sick leave without pay or discretionary leave without pay. Please contact us to put your membership on hold.

Every cent of your subscription fee goes towards the work of the union. It covers staffing and campaign expenses for the various areas of work members are undertaking across the motu to create a fairer, better education sector.

Contact us to let us know when your leave is to commence and when it will cease. We will suspend direct debits for the period of leave. Your membership will be retained during any period of leave without pay for up to fifteen months.

Yes! You can actually become of Te Kupenga Rangatahi (our New Educators Network) for free! You can find more information here.

How often you pay depends on how you choose to pay:

• If you pay by direct debit you can choose to pay fortnightly or monthly.
  If you pay by credit/debit card you can choose to pay fortnightly, monthly, three monthly, six monthly or annually.
• If you opt to be invoiced and pay by direct credit to our bank account you can choose to pay three monthly, six monthly or annually.
• If you chose to pay fortnightly, we recommend that you pay your subscription on the day after your pay goes into your bank account. This is because direct debit and credit card transactions are normally processed by the banks before salary and wage payments. We have no control over these timings.

If you are teaching full time at a school or kindergarten or working full time in learning support for the Ministry of Education, then the top subscription rate will apply.

Otherwise, please use this calculator to determine your correct subscription rate.

Subscription rates usually change only once a year. The actual rates and the thresholds at which each rate becomes payable are adjusted in line with the Consumer Price Index as at the end of December prior to the following year’s NZEI Te Riu Roa Annual Meeting.

Subscription rate changes are notified to members via NZEI Te Riu Roa News emails and individually to each member who pays by direct debit or recurring debit/credit card payments no later than 10 days before the change takes place. No action is required by most members although we do recommend checking that the rate to be paid is correct for your gross fortnightly pay.

There is a 14-day notice period for cancellations. However, we can start the process of cancelling your membership as soon as you fill in our membership cancellation form. 

After the end of our 14-day notice period, your payments will stop, though the exact timing for your last payment will depend on your payment method.

If you are leaving the sector and would like us to cancel your membership at a future date, please let us know when you fill in our membership cancellation form.