Members of the NEU teaching union working at 23 private schools have voted to strike over opposition to their employers’ plans to withdraw from the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS).
Nearly all - 95 per cent - of NEU teacher-members at the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST) have voted in favour of strike action, on a turnout of 84 per cent.
The dates for the strike have not yet been decided, but any action would be the first in the trust’s entire 149-year history.
Plans to withdraw from the TPS were first announced by GDST in September following the government’s decision to raise the rate of employers’ contributions by 43 per cent in 2019.
The NEU says that under the plans, teachers will be at least 20 per cent worse off on average in terms of the annual amount they receive in pension payments.
The union held an indicative ballot for strike action after the plans were first revealed last year.
NEU hopes strike action can be ‘averted’
In the most recent ballot, which ran from 10 to 26 January, members were asked: “Are you prepared to take part in sustained and discontinuous strike action in furtherance of this dispute?”
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, said he hoped the strikes could be “averted” and called on the GDST to “withdraw the proposal” to leave the TPS.
He added: “This is an exceptionally strong mandate. The trust should reflect on just how a large body of committed and hard-working staff have reached this point.
“Members are resolved and rightly determined to defend their pensions.”
The GDST owns 23 independent girls’ schools across England and Wales and, as of December last year, just over 70 per cent of its teaching staff are members of the NEU.
The trust also owns two former independent schools that became academies, but they have separate legal status and do not have the option of leaving the TPS, so their teaching staff were not part of the ballot.
Cheryl Giovannoni, CEO at GDST, said that teachers were “central to the success of the GDST” and that the organisation valued “their incredible contribution and dedication to the education” of the pupils at the trust’s schools.
She added: “The ballot result shows the strength of feeling we know exists amongst our teachers who are NEU members in respect of the proposed changes to teachers’ pensions. We are of course disappointed with the result, but our priority is to continue working closely with our schools to ensure our students are able to continue learning effectively during this time.
“Our collective consultation period with the NEU ends on Friday 28 January. The GDST Trustees will then consider all the feedback received from teachers before making a final decision in the last week of February. We urge the NEU not to call for strike action before any decisions are made, or any further proposals are put forward.”
