THE Government is putting pressure on its own advisers to demolish hopes of a Scottish-style limit on working hours.

And, in a further sign of the acrimony over pay and conditions, ministers and heads’ leaders are facing attacks from governors and unions over their deal on performance pay for senior staff.

The School Teachers’ Review Body will produce its long-awaited recommendations on cutting teachers’ workloads in two weeks. But ministers are anxious to secure proposals they can accept. Although they can reject the body’s advice, doing so would cause uproar.

Estelle Morris, the Education Secretary, is determined not to end up with a version of last year’s McCrone settlement in Scotland.

That means not only ruling out a 35-hour weekly limit, as agreed north of the border, but any kind of firm cap on working hours.

Instead, ministers propose that all teachers get guaranteed “professional time” for marking and preparation each week during school hours. They have rejected the idea of a limit on the time teachers spend in the classroom.

If the review body echoes the Government’s line, it stands to disappoint employers and union leaders, who are threatening industrial action.

One source said: “The Government’s position is really little different from the status quo. If the body does not come up with something radically better than that, it will be a disastrous.”

Meanwhile, Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, has threatened to go to the courts to force the Government to consult the review body on the detail of its deal on performance pay with headteachers’ leaders.

Two years ago, a successful NUT High Court action forced the then education secretary David Blunkett to consult the review body over the first stage of performance pay.

Classroom unions are angry that a deal for senior teachers’ pay was done behind their back. Heads’ associations claim that the deal means there will now be enough money to give further rises to those who have crossed the threshold John Monks, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, has also written to the Education Secretary to express his “very strong anger and dismay” that the three largest classroom unions, two of which have headteacher members, were not consulted about the deal.

The National Association of Governors and Managers is advising governors to take legal advice before making any decisions on performance pay.

* Nearly four out of five teachers in Wales believe that morale is low or very low, according to a new survey by the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers.

Eighty-seven per cent said teaching causes stress, and 90 per cent admitted to working in their holidays or at weekends. On threshold applications, most had found the process stressful: 37 per cent devoted more than 20 hours to completing the form.

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