The country’s largest teaching union has recommended that its members accept the government’s 5.5 per cent pay offer.
The decision - voted on by the NEU teaching union’s national executive this morning - means that a repeat of last year’s pay strikes looks unlikely.
However, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, said that the government “should be under no illusion that a single pay deal is an end to the matter”.
The government announced last week that teachers and school leaders would get a 5.5 per cent pay rise in 2024-25.
NEU to vote in snap poll next term
The NEU said earlier this year that it would hold a snap poll for members to vote on any pay deal put forward by the Department for Education.
The poll will take place from 21 to 30 September.
The decision comes after teacher members voted against moving to a formal ballot for strike action over pay and funding in the summer term, with members instead opting to wait until a formal pay offer was made.
Mr Kebede said the union believed the pay rise for 2024-25 is “a significant first - but not last - step towards a long-term correction in teacher pay, secured as a direct consequence of members’ strike action in 2023 and their positive indicative ballot this March”.
He added: “The executive voted to recommend that members accept the offer.
“It remains the case that more needs to be done to remedy teacher pay, workload and the recruitment and retention crisis.”
Mr Kebede told Tes that the NEU would like to see the DfE establish a commission into the teaching profession “that would make recommendations to steer us out of the [supply] crisis”.
Tes revealed last month that the new government is looking at proposals to launch a fresh review of the teaching profession to address standards and pay.
In February, the government recommended that teachers’ pay rises should be lower than in the past two years, returning to “a more sustainable level” for 2024-25. However, the independent pay review body recommended a 5.5 per cent pay rise for the upcoming academic year.
Former education secretary Gillian Keegan had received the recommendation from the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) before the general election, but a decision was delayed until after the contest.
Last year, the government accepted the pay body’s recommendation of a 6.5 per cent pay rise from September 2023. The deal came after a long-running dispute over pay and months of strike action by teachers.
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