The National Education Union (NEU) has recommended that their members reject the government’s proposed pay increase.
What do Teachers Want?
The above graph, courtesy of The Institute for Fiscal Studies, shows real-term pay cuts of teachers from 2010 to 2022, ranging from 5% real-term reductions for new teachers to 13% for more experienced and senior teachers.
Because of this, unions are calling for above-inflation government-funded pay increases, as opposed to pay rises created from re-allocation of school budgets.
The Government’s Offer
The Government has proposed a one-off payment of £1,000 for the current 2022/23 school year and a 4.3% consolidated pay rise for most teachers for the 2023/24 school year.
The Department for Education has described this proposed pay increase as “a fair and reasonable offer.”
NEU Response
The NEU has noted that this proposed pay increase sits below inflation projections so actually represents another pay cut in real terms for teachers.
Co-leaders of the NEU, Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, said:
“This is an insulting offer from a Government which simply does not value teachers. This offer is less than teachers in Scotland and Wales have been offered. It does nothing to address the long-term decline in teacher pay and therefore does nothing to solve the problems in teacher recruitment and retention.”
If teachers do not accept this pay offer, it is possible that industrial action could occur on exam days as a last resort.
NEU analysis also suggests that up to 58% of schools would be forced to make cuts in order to afford these staff pay rises, putting them under even more financial pressure. This goes against what Unions are calling for, as they want pay increases to be government-funded, rather than them coming from schools’ budgets.
Therefore, NEU has put this offer to their members, recommending rejection. The ballot will close on Sunday 2nd April at the end of this week.