NASUWT URGES MINISTERS TO DELIVER A BETTER DEAL FOR TEACHERS

Speaking at Conservative Party Conference, NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union issued a final appeal to the Government, urging the Schools Standards Minister (Jonathan Gullis MP) to enter into genuine negotiations over teachers’ pay in response to the crises in recruitment, retention and school funding engulfing schools and colleges.

If the Government press ahead with their flawed plans for teachers’ pay, 9 in 10 teachers will face the biggest real-terms pay cut in a generation, the NASUWT warned.

As the cost of living crisis spirals, and newly added pressures of soaring mortgages and rents, teachers will be left defenceless against rising bills as their pay falls by 25% in real terms since 2020.

The Government’s proposed pay award will leave teachers worse off whilst teachers’ salaries will be lower in real terms than they were in 2010.

According to the Incomes Data Research, teachers’ pay has sunk to the bottom of the graduate pay league table. This September, teaching vacancies were 62% higher than the same period in 2019 – revealing the real-life impact low pay is currently having on schools’ ability to attract and retain high quality graduates to teaching.

Compounding pressures on schools further, the Department for Education has failed to provide any additional funding to deliver this year’s pay award.

Despite the Government’s announcements of below-inflation pay increases for teachers, the reality remains that teachers will be subjected to a pay-award lottery, dependent on whether their school can afford to implement the Government’s below-inflation pay award. 

Dr Patrick Roach, NASUWT General Secretary, said:

“It is regrettable that the Schools Minister in his address today appears to have ruled out the prospect of genuine negotiations over this year’s pay award for teachers. He needs urgently to think again.

“Any serious approach toward negotiations must involve exploring all options, but the Minister has instead insisted that the Government will not budge or change its position over this year’s pay award proposals.

“We have done everything possible to seek a resolution, through negotiation, to the extremely serious issues affecting teachers and to avoid the prospect of industrial action in schools and colleges.

“We have asked Ministers to talk to us but it is clear that finding a negotiated settlement is not their priority.

“Ministers are leaving us with no other alternative than to ballot our members to support industrial action in response to the cuts to teachers’ pay.”