England’s largest teaching union has urged its members to reject a new pay offer by ministers, calling it an “insulting offer from a government which simply does not value teachers”.
The National Education Union said the Department for Education had put forward a “final offer” of an average 4.5 per cent pay rise in the next academic year, plus a £1,000 one-off cash payment this year.
Kevin Courtney and Mary Bousted, joint general secretaries of the NEU, said they would ask members “to reject this offer in the strongest possible way”, adding that it would not address a recruitment and retention crisis in English schools.
The advice from the NEU damps hopes that a wave of public sector strikes was beginning to recede after months of industrial action. It also increases pressure on the Treasury to fund public sector pay rises as the cost of living crisis continues to bite.
Nurses on Wednesday will begin voting on a pay offer of 5 per cent next year and a one-off sum of at least £1,655 for 2022-23, which the Royal College of Nursing has urged its members to accept.
However, further walkouts of junior doctors are scheduled next month after talks with the government broke down, while the PCS union, which represents civil servants, will pursue strikes throughout April.
The fresh offer on teacher pay follows days of intensive negotiations between the government and education unions after seven days of NEU strike action affected schools across England in the past two months.
NEU members will now vote on the government’s proposals, with the ballot running until April 2.
Courtney and Bousted said the offer fell short of equivalent deals that ended strikes in Scotland and Wales, was not properly funded and would not address staff shortages.
Vacancies for teachers have nearly doubled since before the pandemic, according to think-tank the National Foundation for Education Research.
“Not only is the offer on pay entirely out of step with the rest of the UK, it is also not fully funded,” Courtney and Bousted said.
NEU analysis showed that up to 58 per cent of schools would have to make cuts to other areas of learning to afford the pay rises next year.
The £1,000 lump sum is a slight improvement on the pay offer of a 5 per cent pay rise for most teachers for this academic year, which the union rejected last year.
Next year’s offer of an average 4.5 per cent pay rise is an increase on the 3 per cent that the DfE recommended to the government pay review body last month.
The DfE also said it would introduce measures to improve working conditions for teachers including relaxing requirements on performance-related pay.
The government said the offer was “fair” and backed with funding for schools. “This is a good deal for teachers that acknowledges their hard work and dedication,” it said.
Additional reporting by Delphine Strauss