Ministers have been warned they only have “a small window of opportunity” to avoid teachers launching industrial action over pay after talks between union bosses and the education secretary today.
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said “no concrete progress” was made in talks with the education secretary this morning and there was “nothing so far that would dissuade us from taking industrial action”.
And NEU leaders said: “If the government wants to avoid industrial action then there is only a small window of opportunity before the NEU declares its ballot result and its plans for action.
Union leaders met with education secretary Gillian Keegan this morning for talks called by the government to avert potential strikes by school staff unions over pay.
The NEU, the NAHT school leaders’ union and the NASUWT teaching union will all be announcing ballot results in the coming week.
The Department for Education announced last year it would award experienced teachers a 5 per cent pay rise from September 2022.
Speaking outside the DfE in central London, alongside NEU joint general secretary Dr Mary Bousted and Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of NASUWT, Mr Courtney said there had been “suggestions” of “further discussions” and “we’ve offered to clear our diaries this week for those” but added there are “no dates yet”.
In a later statement, Mr Courtney and Dr Bousted said: “It is welcome that a meeting was held and we believe that union ballots were crucial in the meeting taking place.
“There is a promise of further discussions both on the government’s evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body for next year and on changes to pay during this year.”
NEU leaders said: “It is welcome that a meeting was held - and we believe that union ballots were crucial in the meeting taking place.
“No one wants to strike and the government can avoid it by talking and making concrete progress on pay.
They added there would have to be ”correction on pay levels to avoid growing problems in our schools”.
The leaders said: “We believe the government knows this, the only question is how much damage is caused to education before the government acts.
“We urge all NEU members to vote in our ballot; we need to keep the pressure up.”
Asked outside the DfE if the talks had involved discussing the specifics of a potential pay offer, Mr Courtney said: “The discussion did not get that far.
“We have heard nothing concrete. No suggestions have been made apart from further meetings.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, described today’s meeting as “constructive but largely unsatisfactory”.
He said: “Our concerns over the long-term erosion of teacher pay and conditions, the inadequacy of this year’s pay award, and the ongoing teacher recruitment and retention crisis, remain unresolved”.
‘We cannot go on like this’
Mr Barton said the union was “pleased that there was at least a commitment from the education secretary to look jointly at our respective submissions to the pay review body for next year’s school teacher pay award”.
But he said this “does not address the shortcomings with this year’s below-inflation award, or the fact that leader and teacher pay has fallen in real terms by a fifth since 2010. We cannot go on like this.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of NAHT, said: “It’s good that the government has had us into the room to start talking. We wouldn’t be at the table at all if not for our industrial action ballot, so it shows the value of union activity.
Mr Whiteman said that, in the meeting, he spoke about “pay and about the recognition teachers and school leaders need for the vital job they do”.
He added: “We also discussed the pay agreement process and how that process has been frustrated in recent years. We hope that this is the start of government speaking to us meaningfully about these issues going forward.
“I’ve offered to clear my diary this week to continue talks in order to avoid unnecessary industrial action.”
Speaking ahead of the talks this morning, Dr Bousted told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If the government is serious, they have to do two things: they have to put more money on the table now, and a one-off payment may sound superficially attractive but that brings all sorts of problems with it.
“We want a pay rise which is incorporated into pay in a proper way.”
