A teaching union leader has warned that further teacher strike dates could be on the cards if no progress is made in pay talks as today’s meeting with the education secretary ended without a resolution.
Education union bosses and Department for Education officials met today to discuss teacher pay for the first time since the NEU teaching union carried out its first national strike day on 1 February.
No new pay offer was made during the talks today unlike in the teacher pay disputes with governments in Scotland and Wales.
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, said that the union will look at further strike dates after 16 March if talks continue to be unproductive.
Referring to the strike dates already set out, Mr Courtney told Tes: “If that doesn’t shift them, then there will be plans for more action, but we think there’s a lot of pressure on them.”
However, Mr Courtney said what the union is “working on at the moment is the plans for those strike days making them as big and as vibrant as possible, and securing as much parental support as possible for them”.
He said this was “creating political pressure on the government”.
And added: “We will turn our attention to what happens if that doesn’t move them, but we are intending that that moves them.
“We do think they’re under pressure, not just from our action”, Mr Courtney added, alluding to the action currently being taken by nurses.
Unions have not ruled out holding further talks with Ms Keegan before further teaching strikes later this month, despite believing they would be “unlikely” to produce an agreement.
While further talks have been discussed, there is no date yet set.
Mr Courtney told the PA news agency: “I would hope there are going to be further talks. They are going to be arranged, we hope, with a fairly short timescale but we haven’t got a date yet.
“We would be available for them if they want them.”
He added: “We do not want to take strike action. We want the government to move.”
Unions to discuss DfE STRB evidence
Tes has been told that the DfE has said it will discuss the shape of its evidence and “affordability” at the next meeting.
Last month, the DfE said it would miss the deadline for submitting its evidence over teacher pay levels for next year to the independent pay review body, the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB).
According to an email to unions seen by Tes, the delay is due to the DfE not yet having “finalised views agreed cross-government on the affordability position to put forward to the STRB”.
More talks before next strike date
Commenting on the talks a Department for Education spokesperson said: “Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan held further constructive talks with union leaders today.
“They discussed a range of issues such as workload reduction, and recruitment and retention. The education secretary instructed officials to hold further detailed talks with unions and committed to more talks ahead of planned strike action.”
