A teachers’ leader is warning that unions could co-ordinate joint strikes over pay, raising the prospect of major school disruption next term for parents and pupils.
NASUWT teachers’ union General Secretary, Patrick Roach, said his union was “ready to do whatever is necessary” to ensure a fair pay deal, potentially including strikes.
And he said there could be joint action with other unions if there was a “coalescence of concerns”, citing the stark financial situation facing schools.
His comments come with the other major classroom teachers’ union, the NEU, about to announce the results of an indicative ballot for industrial action over pay which closed today.
It asked whether teachers accepted the Government’s recommendation to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) of an unfunded 2.8 per cent pay rise for 2025/26 and whether they are willing to strike to secure a “fully funded, significantly higher pay award”.
Now, ministers are also facing the threat of industrial action from the NASUWT if the Government fails to offer a better pay deal.
Roach, used an interview with The i Paper to lay down the gauntlet, saying: “We are ready to do whatever it’s necessary to do, and if that means that we go to our members to ask them about their willingness to take industrial action, then that’s precisely what we’ll do.”
“We wouldn’t rule out strikes,” he added.
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He said members would be balloted for industrial action under three circumstances. Firstly, if the Government fails to match the pay award recommended by the STRB, secondly, if the proposed pay award is below inflation and thirdly, if it is not fully-funded.
Asked about the possibility of joint strikes, Roach said: “If, indeed, there is a coalescence of concerns across unions, whether that’s the NEU, the NAHT [the largest head teachers’ union], or anybody else for that matter, then I’m sure conversations would take place.”
The NEU told The i Paper that it believed in “teaching unions acting together where possible”.
Fears of narrowed curriculum and fewer teachers
Roach said a 2.8 per cent pay rise, without extra Government money to pay for it, would mean a deepening of schools’ funding crisis.
“The consequences are that services will be cut for pupils, that the curriculum will be narrowed even further, that support staff jobs will be lost, and indeed, that teachers jobs will be lost,” he said.
“We are seeing an outbreak of restructures and redundancies taking place in schools at the present time, as schools anticipate what is going to be a very tight financial context for them.
“We are saying very clearly to the Government that we expect it to honour the pay review body machinery, to deliver on pay restoration in the context of an above-inflation pay award, and to ensure that teachers’ pay is fully funded.”
Both the NEU and NASUWT are meeting for their annual conferences next week.
There are eight separate calls for industrial action to be considered in the NEU agenda, with issues including the replacement of teachers with AI and to ensuring state schools remain in the Teacher Pension Scheme (TPS).
NASUWT’s agenda also calls for industrial action where TPS schemes are under threat.
Teacher pay problems ‘far from resolved’
NEU General Secretary Daniel Kebede said: “Government must face up to the fact that the problems in teacher pay are far from resolved. Since 2010 pay for teachers in England has declined by a fifth.
“NEU members have been voting in an indicative ballot as to whether they accept or reject the government’s recommendation of an unfunded 2.8 per cent pay rise. They have also been asked if they are willing to take strike action to secure a fully funded, higher pay award that takes steps to address the crisis in recruitment and retention.
“The NEU national executive meets next week at the union’s conference in Harrogate to discuss this result and conference will decide the next steps.”
Last September, teachers received a 5.5 per cent pay rise in England funded by an additional £1.2 billion from the Government, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves accepting the STRB’s recommendation.
Each year, the independent STRB hears submissions from each side and makes recommendations on teacher pay to the Government, which ultimately decides how much to award.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has warned the STRB of the “challenging financial position this government has inherited” when discussing teachers’ pay for 2025.
The Government has been contacted for comment.
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