School leaders and teachers in Northern Ireland are taking industrial action short of a strike as they call on employers and the government to address “over a decade of pay erosion”.
As of today [18 October] school leaders in Northern Ireland are being instructed to refuse to provide information, data or financial planning to employers.
They are also being instructed to refuse to facilitate or cooperate with unsolicited ministerial and senior civil servant visits to schools - including from school inspectors, unless there are safeguarding concerns.
The action follows a vote earlier this month by teaching unions in Northern Ireland to work together to secure a fair pay deal.
Members of the NAHT school leaders’ union and the INTO and NEU teaching unions voted to take coordinated action short of a strike, with the UTU teachers’ union also confirming last week that its members had “overwhelmingly voted” to begin industrial action over pay.
UTU members are being told not to take on any additional tasks or administrative tasks, or to engage with new initiatives, in a first phase of action that will last until the end of October, with escalation if no acceptable pay offer is brought forward.
In a formal ballot of Northern Ireland school leaders last month by the NAHT, 93 per cent voted in favour of action short of a strike, and 62 per cent voted for strike action in pursuit of a settlement. The turnout was 68 per cent.
Industrial action over teacher pay ‘erosion’
Dr Graham Gault, director of the NAHT in Northern Ireland, said: “The failure of management to address over a decade of pay erosion has brought us to this point. In truth, the remuneration for school leaders has been reduced by almost 30 per cent. Not only has this had a devastating impact on the morale and wellbeing of our current principals and vice-principals, it has begun to impact in serious ways on both retention and recruitment for the profession.”
The NAHT’s action will be continuous and, according to Dr Gault, “will be intensified should management continue to fail to resolve this dispute satisfactorily”.
Liam McGuckin, president of NAHT Northern Ireland, said: “We have worked closely with the teaching unions because this dispute relates to the fact that teachers and school leaders have collectively had their pay so appallingly damaged in recent years.”
He added “We have taken every step to ensure that our actions are focused on the employers and will not impact our children and school communities.”
A full list of the actions the NAHT is instructing Northern Ireland members to take from today can be found here.
There was a pay offer in February that was rejected by all of the Northern Ireland trade unions. According to NAHT, for school leaders, it equated to 2.49 per cent on average, over two years and was rejected by members.
There has been no further offer since then with the absence of a functioning executive in Northern Ireland described as “a major stumbling block”.
