The National Education Union (NEU) should prepare for national strikes next year if it fails to win concessions from government on workload, a motion to its conference next week argues.
Members will also debate a motion calling for a ballot for a potential boycott of SATs, and another exploring industrial action if government will not negotiate over the use if AI in education.
It’s important to note these motions are put forward by NEU members and do not reflect the position of the union unless they pass at the conference in Harrogate next week.
Some may not pass, and some may not be heard at all due to time constraints. But they give a good idea of what will set the agenda.
Here’s what you need to know…
1. Indicative ballot results and emergency pay motion
The NEU has been conducting an indicative ballot of its members on the government’s proposed 2.8 per cent pay award for next year.
The results of that ballot are set to be announced at conference. This morning, deputy general secretary David Wilson told journalists: “What we can say is that the attitudes that members have been expressed over the last few years remain the same.
“They believe they deserve an above inflation, pay rise, but more importantly, that that pay rise, any pay rise, has to be fully funded.”
Once the results are known, conference will consider an emergency motion on pay to decide whether to proceed to a formal ballot. There will also be an emergency motion on Ofsted. The text of those motions has not yet been agreed.
2. A win on workload or ‘prepare for strike action’
Teachers’ current conditions state they “must work such reasonable additional hours as may be necessary to enable the effective discharge of the teacher’s professional duties”.
A motion on workload seeks to get the union to call for the government to scrap that clause from September, with a “fixed limit on the hours teachers can be expected to work as part of a campaign for a new national contract for all education staff”.
It also calls on leaders to “draw up plans at the first executive after conference to win national ballots by Christmas and to prepare for national strike action in the first part of the spring term if our demands on the ‘reasonable hours’ clause and a new national contract have not been met”.
But an amendment seeks to scrap that last paragraph, and instead seeks to instruct the union to “press ahead with the ‘lighting fires’ strategy of encouraging and supporting disputes in and across workplaces to fight for better conditions, ensuring that both rep and officer training reflects this”.
3. Explore industrial action over AI
A motion on the use of artificial intelligence in education seeks to “lobby the government to produce regulations ensuring AI technologies in education are transparent, accountable, and aligned with pedagogical best practices”.
The union should also “actively resist the unchecked expansion of tech companies’ influence in education and advocate for teacher-led, student-centric approaches to AI adoption”, the motion states.
An amendment to the motion seeks to “demand negotiations with central government, at the earliest opportunity, to agree the protocols guiding the introduction of new digital tools to ensure they align with the demand for a fully funded education system that champions creativity and professional autonomy for teachers.
Failure to achieve this “should result in the executive drawing up an action plan to win this demand, including exploring industrial action in pursuit of our claim”.
4. SATs boycott on the way?
On the curriculum and assessment review, a motion notes it “presents us with the best time to push forward opposition to the damaging burden of high-stakes primary testing”.
It calls on the union to campaign for the abolition of the EBacc and progress 8 performance measures, an end to selection, a single publicly-owned exam board
It also calls for a “ballot for action against the workload of national curriculum tests in primary schools, whilst pushing within the review for an end to league tables”.
5. Action sought on ‘overloaded’ and ‘racist’ curriculum
A further motion on the curriculum states that conference believes its content is “overloaded” and not “age appropriate”. For example, at primary level “the approach is ‘too much, too young’”.
The motion also states the curriculum “was designed to install a racist notion of ‘British identity’”.
The union should “continue to campaign for a broad, balanced and holistic curriculum for all”, the motion states.
6. Call for 26 weeks full maternity pay for teachers
On maternity rights, a motion seeks to get the union to call for statutory maternity pay of 26 weeks full pay for all educators.
The union should also encourage districts and branches to “campaign locally to highlight issues of inequality, such as pay discrimination and open negotiations with schools, LAs and academy trusts to implement policies aimed at retaining women educators”.
7. Plea for mega teacher union merger
The announcement of Matt Wrack as the NASUWT executive’s pick for general secretary has raised the prospect of closer working with the NEU, and potentially even a merger.
A motion to conference calls on the NEU to “redouble its efforts to seek further amalgamations with the aim of creating one union for education workers.
“This to include initiating meetings, on or off the record, with individual education unions.”
8. Motion seeks to label Reform UK ‘racist’
While less to do with schools, a motion that labels the Reform political party as “racist” and “far right” is likely to get attention.
The motion on “opposing the far right” seeks to state that the conference believes that “far right and racist organisations, including Reform UK, seek to build on the despair, poverty and alienation in our society by scapegoating refugees, asylum seekers, Muslims, Jews and others who do not fit their beliefs”.
“Some young people are drawn towards racist beliefs and in some cases far right activity, and we need to educate and challenge them, rather than simply exclude them from school, or watch them be consigned to prison.”
Speaking about the motion this morning, NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said Reform leader Nigel Farage “has made a career out of dog whistle politics”.
But he added: “Do I think that every Reform voter is a racist? No, absolutely not.”
Reform UK was approached for comment.
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