Leaders join strikes for fair pay

STANDING shoulder to shoulder with their educator colleagues, NEU Leadership members in England and Wales have been taking industrial action as part of the ongoing pay dispute with the Government.

Strikes began in England and Wales on 1 February, the first national action by the union for 12 years, involving around 300,000 members. Thousands of schools closed or partially closed.

The Government’s refusal to give teachers and support staff a fully funded, above-inflation pay rise, despite the union’s repeated warnings that poor pay is fuelling a national teacher shortage, has forced industrial action.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan met with the union after 1 February but failed to offer a better deal than the five per cent given to most teachers for 2022/23.

This forced further strikes across different English regions on 28 February and 1, 2, 15 and 16 March, and in Wales on 2 March. Following meaningful negotiations between the NEU and the Welsh Government, a new and fully funded pay offer was put to teacher members, who accepted it. As a result, the strike days scheduled in Wales (15 and 16 March) were called off.

Teachers were offered an extra 1.5 per cent consolidated and a 1.5 per cent unconsolidated. There was no improved offer for support staff, who have also been striking in Wales.

Support for the action among parents and the public has been high, and members on picket lines have been cheered and applauded. An Ipsos poll shows 60 per cent of parents are behind our strike, while 48 per cent of Britons support teachers and the fight for improved funding for education.

Individual head teachers at other unions such as the NAHT, which did not reach the threshold for industrial action in its ballot, donated their day’s pay to hardship funds in a gesture of solidarity. Two more national strike days were held in England on 15 and 16 March.

Government ignores warnings that poor pay is fuelling national teacher shortage

THE union wrote 18 letters to four education secretaries, and met ministers seven times between June 2022 and January this year, warning that poor pay is contributing to a recruitment and retention crisis in education that is growing worse by the day.

NEU joint general secretaries Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney told the Government that unless it awards a fully funded, above-inflation pay rise, more educators will quit.

Teachers are leaving their jobs in droves, as are support staff, forced out by a toxic mix of excessive workload and poor pay. As Lead went to press, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan had made a new offer, following intensive talks. The union opened a ballot (see page 4), advising members to reject the “insulting” offer.