More school leaders have voted to resoundingly reject the government’s teacher pay offer, with the majority also indicating support for industrial action.
Members of the NAHT school leaders’ union have followed in the steps of the NEU teaching union and the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), both of which rejected the offer earlier this week.
The NAHT has said that the government must “come back to the table” and that to do otherwise would be to “stick two fingers up” to teachers.
More than three-quarters (78 per cent) of NAHT members who voted said they would be willing to support and take industrial action if the offer was rejected.
The NAHT’s last strike ballot, on the government’s 2022-23 pay offer, failed to meet the legal turnout threshold, and the union has previously said that it is “committed to balloting again” on industrial action.
Last week, the Department for Education made all four teaching unions the offer of a £1,000 non-consolidated payment for 2022-23 and an average 4.5 per cent rise for 2023-24.
But nine in 10 NAHT members who voted (on a 64 per cent turnout) said they would reject this offer.
Most (92 per cent) said the offer was unaffordable and they did not have the headroom in their budget to be able to afford the proposed pay offer for the 2023-24 academic year.
Leaders have voiced concerns about the affordability of the government offer after it was revealed that just 0.5 per cent of the overall 4.5 per cent pay award for next year, plus the £1,000 one-off payment for this year, would have come through new funding.
The NAHT’s national executive will now meet on 27 April to discuss next steps, including a formal ballot on industrial action.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, said that the result was a “conclusive response to the government’s offer”, adding it had been “judged inadequate and unaffordable”.
He said: “Our members do not recognise the government’s calculations on the affordability of the offer, with the vast majority of headteachers and school business leaders saying they could not pay the rise from their existing budgets.”
Mr Whiteman added that this was a “very clear stumbling block and one the government must listen to and solve if we hope to bring this dispute to an end”.
He continued: “The government must now come back to the table and solve this dispute. To do otherwise would be to stick two fingers up to a dedicated profession whilst at the same time turning their backs on children.”
Mr Whiteman also spoke at the NEU’s annual conference today. On the possibility of coordinating strike action with other education unions, he said: “I can’t imagine a situation where all unions would be in dispute and wouldn’t coordinate action in some way.
“It makes the point as strong as we possibly can.”
A DfE source hit back: “NAHT seem determined to raise the temperature. Last week, they threatened to sue Ofsted. Now they’re accusing government of turning backs on children. You expect this sort of rhetoric from the NEU, not NAHT.”
An official DfE spokesperson said its offer was “funded, including major new investment of over half a billion pounds, and helps tackle issues teachers are facing like workload”.
They added: “NEU, NAHT and ASCL’s decision to reject this offer will simply result in more disruption for children and less money for teachers today.”
