A second teaching union has voted to accept the government’s 6.5 per cent pay deal for all teachers and leaders in England, but has said that strike action over workload could still be on the table.
Teacher members of the NASUWT teaching union have voted to accept the 6.5 per cent pay award from September 2023.
But the union’s general secretary has said that schools in England will be taking action “up to and including industrial action, to tackle excessive workload and working hours”.
Tes understands that strike action has not yet been ruled out.
The decision follows an earlier announcement by the NEU teaching union that its members had accepted the deal and would not be carrying out further strikes.
NASUWT’s results show that 77.6 per cent of members who took part in a ballot on the pay deal announced earlier this month voted to back the offer.
However, less than a fifth of members (18.4 per cent) said that the commitments announced by the government to tackle excessive workload and working hours were sufficient.
While NASUWT has said that 18,000 members voted in the consultative survey, the percentage of turnout is not yet known.
It comes after NASUWT members in state-funded schools in England voted for action, with 88.5 per cent of eligible members voting to support strike action and 94.3 per cent voting in support of action short of strike action, based on an overall turnout of 51.9 per cent.
However, the ballot was disaggregated, meaning not all members in all schools would legally be allowed to take part in any action.
Dr Patrick Roach, NASUWT’s general secretary, said: “The prospect of NASUWT members taking coordinated strike action this autumn has forced the government to accept the STRB pay recommendation and ensure that all schools receive additional funding to deliver it.
“Teachers and headteachers should benefit from more money in their pockets at a time when they are struggling with rising interest rates, rocketing rents and mortgages, and persistent high inflation.”
But he said that members “do not agree that sufficient action is yet being taken to address their concerns over excessive workload and long working hours”.
The union has written to the education secretary today to call on the government to do more to address its members’ “demands for pay restoration and immediate action to tackle excessive workload and long working hours”, he said.
He added: “We have also made clear to ministers that our members expect the government to act on all the advice it has received from the independent pay review body.
“In schools across the country, NASUWT will be taking action, up to and including industrial action, to tackle excessive workload and working hours and to protect the health, safety and welfare of our members at work.”
School leaders accept 6.5 per cent award
The NAHT school leaders’ union has also announced today that its members have voted to accept the government pay award for 2023-24.
Eighty-five per cent of members who took part in a ballot on the pay deal - which was announced earlier this month - voted to back the offer.
The NAHT had secured a mandate for strike action, with 82 per cent of eligible members voting to strike, with a turnout of 54 per cent. However, the union does not intend to take industrial action next term.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, said: “Our ballot results today clearly show the strength of feeling within the education profession that action is urgently needed. School leaders are reasonable people, and striking is very much a last resort, but our members have felt compelled to vote for action by a government that simply wasn’t listening.
“Fortunately, the actions of our members and the members of other education unions have forced the government to finally hear the profession’s concerns, and to make an offer that our members can live with. As a result, the prospect of co-ordinated strike action next term is no longer necessary.
“Although the pay and funding offered by the government is not everything our members asked for, it is the largest ever recommendation from the STRB, and the additional funding and hardship fund provided by the government to fund the pay award makes the deal workable. We will continue to negotiate on the workload and wellbeing aspects of the government’s offer.”
Details of the pay award
Under the terms of the offer announced by the Department for Education, teachers and leaders would receive a 6.5 per cent pay rise from September 2023.
The award was more than the DfE had originally proposed in February (3.5 per cent), but for the second year is less than the “fully funded, inflation-plus pay increase” demanded by teaching unions.
And the decision was in line with the recommendations from the School Teachers’ Review Body.
All four education unions - the NASUWT and NEU teaching unions, the NAHT school leaders’ union and ASCL - recommended that members accept the pay award.
