The country’s biggest multi-academy trust has said it will not be issuing “work notices” to employees if the government’s plan to restrict future teacher strikes goes ahead.
United Learning warned that it is “inconceivable” that any “rational” school employers would issue work notices compelling teachers not to strike.
The MAT, which has 89 academies across the country, raised its concerns in its response to the government’s consultation on its proposal for minimum service levels (MSLs) for schools. Under the plan, particular groups of pupils would have to be in school on strike days.
The response, published on the trust’s website, states that United Learning believes the policy, “in its current form, is wrong in principle and in its details, and likely to be self-defeating in practice”.
“We will not be issuing work notices if the policy goes ahead as is,” the trust warns.
Plan to restrict teacher strikes ‘inflammatory’
United Learning also states that issuing a work notice would be “inflammatory” and make it harder for employers to retain staff.
“Especially in a difficult labour market, it is inconceivable that rational employers will issue work notices,” it says.
The Association of School and College Leaders, alongside other education unions, has previously warned that the plan could worsen the teacher recruitment and retention crisis.
The government missed its target for the recruitment of secondary teacher trainees by 50 per cent this year, according to data published last month.
And the number of state-school teachers leaving the profession hit its highest rate in four years in the academic year 2021-22, with one in 10 (43,997) recorded as having quit the classroom.
Schools are ‘not like a railway’
United Learning also states in its consultation response that a school is “not like a railway”, saying that the move to introduce minimum service levels into education gives the “impression” of a “concept designed for rail strikes being clumsily retrofitted to schools”.
“If a school is to open for anyone, significant staffing is required; and if it is not to open for everyone, some must be required to attend and some prohibited from attending,” the trust says.
The Department for Education plan to keep up to around three in four pupils in schools during teacher strikes, as part of its MSL proposal, was first revealed by Tes last year.
And while United Learning says, in reference to strike action, that “anything that disrupts education is...harmful”, it also states that this is an “inadequate basis for denying others the right to withdraw their labour”.
“As we disagree that the concept of a minimum service level can be applied to schools, and disagree with further limiting individuals’ rights in this area, we therefore do not agree that minimum service levels regulations should be implemented for schools,” it says.
The DfE has been approached for comment.
