The country’s biggest teaching union has said potential strikes could happen from 30 January next year as its leaders warned that teachers’ “strength of feeling” over pay should not be underestimated.
Following its announcement that the union would ballot members over strike action last Friday, the NEU teaching union has now set out its timeline for teacher and support staff ballots for the next few months.
The union will open the formal postal ballots on Friday 28 October and close on Friday 13 January.
Kevin Courtney and Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretaries of the NEU, said today: ”The strength of feeling should not be underestimated.”
While the dates for potential action have not yet been confirmed, the NEU has said it would be likely to fall on the week commencing 30 January 2023.
It comes after the NAHT school leaders’ union announced today that it would move to a formal industrial action ballot over potential strike action, following a consultation with its headteacher and school leader members.
Mr Courtney and Dr Bousted said that pay and workload “lay at the root of a recruitment and retention crisis that should be of deep concern to the government, but about which they have been completely ineffective”.
The formal ballots will ask members: “Are you prepared to take strike action in furtherance of this dispute?”
It adds that the union is in dispute “about the failure to give a commitment for a fully funded above-inflation pay rise (as measured by September 2022 RPI)”.
The joint general secretaries said the latest financial statement from the government “will do nothing to quell the anger of teachers and support staff as they face yet another real-terms pay cut”.
“The government believes that a starting salary of £30,000, promised at the 2019 election and introduced this September, will be generous enough to stem the flow. But they ignore the fact that inflation since 2019 has already wiped out its value.”
School staff ‘undervalued for too long’
While members are “reluctant to strike”, they feel they have been “undervalued for too long”, the NEU said today.
The joint general secretaries added: “The government’s refusal to fully fund the meagre pay rise for 2022-23 is the final insult. We repeat our willingness to meet with the government to find a serious answer to more than a decade of declining pay.”
The NEU announced it would move to a formal ballot last week after the results of a preliminary ballot showed the vast majority of its teacher members were willing to take strike action to demand a fully funded, above-inflation pay rise.
The NEU said that when surveyed on whether they were willing to take strike action as part of a future formal ballot, 86 per cent of teacher members said “yes”.
It said a separate preliminary ballot of support staff also strongly supported taking action over pay.
Last week, the NASUWT teaching union said it would ballot its members on industrial action over pay, with papers due to be issued to members from 27 October and the ballot closing on 9 January.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “It is incredibly disappointing that some unions are threatening industrial action in schools. Strike action will damage children’s education and disrupt parents’ lives. Given the impact of the pandemic on children, it’s more important than ever that strike action is avoided.
“We have confirmed the highest pay awards for teachers in a generation - 8.9 percent for new teachers and five percent for experienced teachers and leaders - recognising their dedication and hard work.”
