Ministers have been urged to return to the negotiating table to avoid extended teachers’ strikes in England this summer, after NASUWT members voted decisively to reject the pay deal being offered by the government.
NASUWT is the fourth teaching union to reject the pay offer, with 87% of its members voting against acceptance. It follows similar rejections by the National Education Union (NEU), 98% of whose members voted against, as well as the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL).
Large numbers of NASUWT members also supported a formal ballot on industrial action, with 77% backing a vote to authorise strikes later this year. More than 52% of the NASUWT’s 130,000 eligible members in England took part.
Patrick Roach, the NASUWT’s general secretary, said the vote meant that strikes in the summer term by his members “could be” on the cards, as well as coordination with the other teaching unions over strike dates.
An earlier strike ballot by the NASUWT failed to reach the 50% threshold of members taking part, but Roach said there was rising frustration among members over the deal offered by the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, especially over the 4.3% pay rise proposed for most teachers.
“It didn’t help that teachers in Scotland and teachers in Wales got more. It didn’t help that there was more on the table for nurses and staff in the NHS. It didn’t help that fire officers effectively secured a 7%-plus-5% deal,” Roach said at the union’s annual conference in Glasgow.
“What I’m saying to the government is: you’ve started a conversation, and it now needs to be finished.
“You asked us, on your behalf, to consult with our members. We’ve done that. Now we need to have a conversation about it and how we move forward. So don’t start taking things off the table.”
The government offered a £1,000 one-off bonus to teachers in England this year and an average pay rise of 4.5% next year, with more for early-career teachers. Only the bonus and a small portion of the pay rise would have been funded by extra cash from the Department for Education (DfE) and the Treasury, with the rest of the pay rise coming out of existing school budgets.
The DfE said: “After costing children almost a week of time in the classroom and with exams fast approaching, it is extremely disappointing that unions are reballoting for more strike action.
“The offer was funded, including major new investment of over half a billion pounds, and helps tackle issues teachers are facing like workload. NEU, NAHT, ASCL and NASUWT’s decisions to reject this offer will simply result in more disruption for children and less money for teachers today.”
Last week the NEU announced five further days of strike action among its members working in schools in England, with the first two on 27 April and 2 May and three more to be scheduled in June or July.
If NASUWT members also vote to take industrial action, it will be the biggest disruption to schools in England since 2011, when the two unions mounted a joint strike alongside the NAHT.
As well as pay, a NASUWT survey found that long working hours were affecting teachers’ wellbeing, with more than four out of five saying their mental health had suffered over the last 12 months as their workload increased.
Excessive workload was the biggest reason given for declining mental health, with the 8,500 teachers who responded saying they worked 54 hours a week on average, including evenings and weekends spent on marking, lesson planning and administration.
