Almost four in 10 teachers would support strike action if offered a pay deal of 3 per cent or less, according to a poll seen by Tes.
The finding comes after the RMT rail workers’ union rejected a 3 per cent pay increase from Network Rail at the start of nationwide strike action this week.
A 3 per cent uplift is what many experienced teachers and leaders are in line for next year, under Department for Education proposals.
This morning the NEU teaching union warned the education secretary that it will ballot members over strike action in the autumn if the government fails to commit to a pay rise above inflation, which stands at 9.1 per cent today.
Secondary teachers more supportive of strike action
Overall, 38 per cent of teachers surveyed by Teacher Tapp said they would “support strike action” if offered a 3 per cent rise.
This proportion rose to 44 per cent for secondary teachers, a breakdown of the 6,791 responses reveals. Just under a third (32 per cent) of primary teachers said the same.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the government should be “very concerned” about the survey results.
“What they suggest is that a significant proportion of teachers are so fed up with pay erosion in real terms over the course of many years that they are in favour of strike action if the pay award once again falls a long way short of inflation,” he said.
The reason why no more than four in 10 teachers would support strike action, he suggested, is because “strike action is obviously such a big step to take and many teachers are reluctant to go down this route”.
A fifth of respondents to the Teacher Tapp poll (20 per cent) said they would not support strike action, while almost four in 10 (38 per cent) were unsure. And 3 per cent did not want to answer or did not feel the question was relevant to them.
Mr Barton said that the data “suggests the number in favour could rise in the future if the pay award is as woeful as the government is currently proposing”.
And Kevin Courtney, NEU general secretary, said: “These are encouraging figures, with just 20 per cent opposed to strike action on pay.”
Teachers were more likely to support a strike if they worked at a state school (39 per cent) compared with a private school (30 per cent)
Men were also more likely to support strike action, with 50 per cent of male teachers saying they would strike, compared with 34 per cent of their female counterparts.
The proportion of teachers saying they would support strike action also varied regionally.
Almost half of those who worked in London (46 per cent) said they would support strike action, compared with just over a third (34 per cent) in the South East.
Support for strike action was also high in the North West, with 44 per cent answering “yes”.
Unions considering strikes over pay
The NEU is not the only teaching union considering strike action.
Earlier this week leaders of the NASUWT teaching union called for a 12 per cent pay increase for teachers this year, and said it will ballot members in England, Wales and Scotland for industrial action if such a pay rise is not offered.
In March the Department for Education told the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), which makes recommendations on pay, that it wanted the starting salary for teachers to reach £30,000 by 2023, admitting that a “significant” pay rise was needed to recruit and retain staff to the profession.
To reach the £30,000 starting salary target, the DfE proposed an 8.9 per cent uplift in 2022-2023 to the statutory minimum (M1) for qualified teachers outside of London.
The department said this should be followed by a 7.1 per cent increase in 2023-24.
However, it is proposing smaller increases of 3 per cent next year, followed by 2 per cent the following year, for more experienced teachers on upper pay ranges and for those on the leadership scale.
The DfE has said school leaders are staying in teaching at a greater rate than classroom teachers.
‘Severe real-terms pay cuts’
But union leaders have previously warned that the plans could mean a real-terms pay cut for most teachers.
Earlier this year the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said that teachers could be faced with “severe” real-terms pay cuts as a result of higher rates of inflation.
In one scenario, the IFS warned that the chancellor would have to either impose “severe real pay cuts” on teachers and other public sector workers or add “even more” to public borrowing.
The STRB is due to report back next month.
Responding to the survey findings, education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said: “We have proposed the highest pay awards in a generation for new teachers - 16.7 per cent over the next two years - alongside further pay awards for more experienced teachers and leaders.
“Young people have suffered more disruption to their education than any generation that’s gone before, and it’s the vital work of teachers that is helping them get back on track. The last thing I - or any parent - want to see is anything that would risk undoing that progress.
“We will be considering the pay recommendations from the independent pay review body in due course.”
