
image source, Getty Images
Teachers union England is voting members on strike after 87% of its members voted to reject the government’s offer of wages.
NASUWT, which represents 280,000 teachers in the UK, said the offer failed to address its concerns about pay and working conditions.
Four unions have so far rejected the offer – including the National Education Union, which is planning further strikes.
The government said a further strike was “extremely disappointing”.
Most public school teachers in England will get a 5% increase in pay in 2022.
They were offered a raise of 4.3 per cent next year, plus a one-off £1,000 payment this year. Starting salaries will also rise to £30,000 from September.
The government said it believed the schools could fund most of the wage increase from their budgets, and that additional money could have been provided to make up the rest.
But unions have been fighting for fully funded wage increases, arguing that taking money out of school budgets could mean they would be forced to make cuts elsewhere.
The government’s payment offer was also rejected by the National Education Union (NEU), the National Association of School Superintendents (NAHT) and the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL).
At NASUWT’s annual conference in Glasgow on Saturday, Dr Patrick Roach, the union’s general secretary, urged Education Secretary Gillian Keegan to return to push talks.
“The government’s wage offer fails to come close to addressing concerns about pay and working conditions for teachers, and our members have rightly rejected it,” he said.
“Gillian Keegan said she was willing to negotiate and listen to the profession. She must now prove she means what she says by going back to the negotiating table to find a solution to our dispute.”
He said it was the government’s responsibility to make “a fully funded payment offer that would be acceptable to the profession”.
The union did not disclose turnout in the advisory ballot, but said 77% of members said they were ready to vote to strike.
Members of the National Education Union in England – the UK’s largest education union – will strike on Thursday 27 April and Tuesday 2 May.