Teachers and school staff in Wales will strike across four days in February and March after voting for industrial action. Members from both the NAHT and NEU unions voted overwhelmingly to strike in a dispute over pay and conditions. It means school closures are very much on the cards for those days and parents will need to find childcare.
Announced on Monday, headteachers, support staff and other school workers in Wales will strike on February 1, February 14, March 15 and March 16. Similar to weather disruption like snow, whether schools close or not is up to local authorities and schools to decide. But the number of workers set to go on strike is likely to mean widespread school closures on those days as they will not be able to function as normal.
Teaching unions have been campaigning for months for a pay increase close to inflation, which is currently over 10%. Teachers in Wales rejected the Welsh Government's offer of a 5% increase in November, calling it an "insult" and threatening to strike unless a higher offer was put on the table.
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Both the NEU and NAHT, two of the biggest teaching unions, announced their ballot results on Monday. The NEU Cymru ballot result saw 92.28% of teacher members vote to strike on a turnout of 58.1%, above the threshold needed to legally strike. A ballot of support staff in Wales saw the majority of members vote yes 88.26% on a turnout of 51.3%. Teachers and support staff in Wales will now strike on February 1, February 14, March 15 and March 16.
NEU members in England also voted to strike with teachers voting 90.44% yes on a turnout of 53.27%. However, English support staff failed to reach the threshold despite an 84.13% majority voting to strike.
Members of NAHT which represents head teachers and school leaders also saw its members in Wales vote to strike with 95% voting ‘Yes’ to action short of strike and 75% voting ‘Yes’ to strike with a turnout of 55% of the union’s membership. The union's committee will meet in the coming days to decide on dates for strike action.
Teachers in England and Wales vote for strikes in pay dispute
NAHT members in England also voted in favour of strike (64%) and action short of strike (87%) but only 42% voted, short of the 50% needed. The union said it was considering re-running the vote as it felt the ballot had been impacted by Royal Mail strikes over Christmas.
There are likely to be widespread school closures with thousands of staff set to be absent on strike days. In Wales, industrial action is treated the same as any other possible disruption to a school like severe weather or snow, so individual schools alongside local authorities plan and implement measures that minimise the impact on children and decide how best to make up for pupils’ education that has been lost.
Last week the NASUWT teaching union voted overwhelmingly to strike, with nine out of ten teachers who voted in the ballot in favour, but the turnout of 42% was below the 50% threshold. The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) which includes trust leaders, headteachers, principals from primary and secondary schools and colleges, is balloting its 22,000 members for action after members indicated they wanted a vote.
Laura Doel, director of NAHT Cymru, said: “The continuous education reform agenda, issues with recruitment and retention, and the repeated underfunding of schools has left our education system at breakpoint. Our leaders are being asked to do more with less, schools are losing staff, and those left are struggling to keep up with the demands of the job.
“This result should act as a wake-up call to the Welsh Government that their ambitious reform agenda is endangering the education of learners across Wales. Our focus must be on delivering the new curriculum and ALN legislation and any vanity projects, like reforming the school day/year for example, need to be kicked into the long grass. An urgent review of the middle tier, its funding and its value must also form part of the discussion.
“The local authority employers need to either realise the plight of schools and work with us to address the issues or sit on the side-lines while we address the burdens placed on the system with the government and fight to free up the much-needed funds to enable our schools to run properly.
“We need to invest in education where it offers the most value for our learners, and that’s in the workforce. It is only with highly skilled, quality teachers and teaching assistants in our classrooms, and strong leaders in our schools, that we can deliver for our children.”
David Evans, Wales Secretary of the NEU Cymru, said: "We have continually raised our concerns with the education minister about teacher and support staff pay, and Welsh Government funding of schools, but so far they have not taken steps to resolve the issue.
"Teachers have lost around 20% in real-terms since 2010, and support staff 27% over the same period. The 5% pay rise for teachers this year is some 7% behind inflation. In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, that is an unsustainable situation.
"Around a quarter of teachers are leaving within their first five years of qualifying. This is a waste of important talent and taxpayers' money, yet the Welsh Government has not acted to ensure the conditions they are allowing in schools support retention.
"The Welsh Government must know there is going to have to be action on teacher pay. They must realise that school support staff need a pay rise. If they do not, then the consequences are clear for parents and children. Anyone who values education should support us in this dispute because that is what we are standing up for.
"It continues to be the aspiration of the NEU and its membership that this dispute can be resolved without recourse to strike action. We regret having to take strike action and are willing to enter into negotiations at any time, any place, but this situation cannot go on.
"We will be meeting with Jeremy Miles in the coming days and look forward to doing so, we will continue to press that concrete proposals on teacher and support staff pay be put forward."
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