The leader of the NASUWT teaching union has said it could ballot members for industrial action within weeks if government fails to provide a “fully-funded” pay rise for next year.
His comments raise the prospect that two teaching unions – the NASUWT and National Education Union – could both ballot members in the summer term for strikes as soon as the autumn.
In its evidence to the STRB last year, the Department for Education said 2.8 per cent pay rise “would be appropriate” for 2025-26, adding that schools would need to find “efficiencies” to fund some of the increase.
But wage growth in the wider economy is set to hit 3.7 per cent this year.
Unions are waiting for the Department for Education to publish the report of the school teachers’ review body and ministers’ response.
At today’s conference, the NASUWT passed a motion ordering its ruling executive to “reject any pay award that is not fully-funded and to move immediately to ballot members for industrial action”.
‘We would not be delaying’
After the vote, Roach told Schools Week the union expected an “inflation-proof” and “fully-funded” pay award, and would not wait for June’s spending review statement to put the offer to members.
“It depends on when the secretary of state or the government releases the review body report. But we would be responding to that as a matter of urgency.
“We want money in our members’ pockets ready for the start of the new academic year. We don’t want to be seeing any delay to that.
“If they were to release the pay review body report next week, we aren’t going to be waiting until the back end of the summer term to be seeking our members’ views about that. We would not be waiting. We would not be delaying.”
It comes after NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said teachers could walk out on strike as soon as the autumn term if the government won’t up its pay offer and fully-fund the increase.
During the pay debate today, NASUWT junior vice president Dan Lister said the union would “not settle for empty promises while our colleagues burn out and our students miss out.
“We call on the national executive to intensify its campaign, and we empower the national action committee to reject any pay deal that isn’t fully funded and move swiftly to ballot for industrial action if necessary.”
He said the government’s failure to fully-fund any rise “means restructures, it means redundancies, members losing their jobs and children losing their teachers”.
Union checking ‘validity’ of general secretary challenge
Roach is due to stand down later this month, with Matt Wrack, the former general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, nominated by the union’s executive to replace him.
Members of the union had until noon today to achieve the 25 branch nominations needed to challenge him in a contested election. At least one member, Luke Akhurst, was known to be seeking nominations.
A spokesperson for NASUWT said: “Following the close of nominations, the union will undertake the required checks on the validity of all nominations received and an announcement will be made at the conclusion of this process next week.”
The union has not said whether or not this means another candidate passed the threshold, but its statement suggests someone may have done, given a failure to obtain 25 nominations means automatic exclusion from the election.
Schools Week understands the validity checks include on candidates’ eligibility to stand, whether they met rules against canvassing and whether meetings to nominate them had enough members in attendance.
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