State schools across England face closures in the summer term as a FOURTH education union emphatically rejected the Tory Government's pay offer.
General Secretary of the teachers' union - NASUWT - Dr Patrick Roach said over the weekend strike action could be "on the cards" for his union.
The union's members are expected to be re-balloted for industrial action in the coming weeks after a massive 87% rejected the existing pay offer.
In a consultative ballot the union, which represents 280,000 serving teachers, said a clear majority - 77% - also said they would be willing to vote for strike action.
Dr Roach said: "Today the NASUWT is putting the Secretary of State for Education on notice of our intention to ballot members for industrial action.
"The Government's pay offer failed to come close to addressing the concerns over pay and working conditions of teachers and this has rightly been rejected by our members".
The Government has offered a £1,000 one-off payment for the current school year (2022/23) and an average of 4.5% rise for staff next year (2023/24).
Last week members of the National Education Union (NEU) also rejected the offer, with its members set to walkout on April 27 and May 2.
Further strikes are set to go ahead in the summer months and if NASUWT members vote for industrial action, coordinated strikes could hit schools in the summer.
The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) have also rejected the pay offer.
A spokesman for the Department for Education said: "Following a week negotiating in good faith, the Government offered teachers a £1,000 payment on top of this year's pay rise, a commitment a cut workload by five hours per week, and a headline pay increase of 4.5% for next year - above both inflation and average earnings growth.
"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".
