The Government has offered a pay deal to the joint teaching unions in England.
Four teaching unions - the NEU, NASUWT, NAHT and ASCL - have been in dispute with the Government over teachers' pay and conditions. Members of the largest of those unions, the NEU, overwhelmingly voted for industrial action earlier in the year.
NEU members took two days of national strike action and a further two days of regional action, which according to the Department for Education resulted in the closure of 10 percent and partial closure of 45 percent of schools in the England.
The deal on the table now, which has been described as a best and final offer by Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, would see every teacher receive a one-off pro-rata payment of £1,000 plus a 4.3 percent increase from September 2023.
The one-off payment would be funded by the Government, whereas the 4.3 percent would be unfunded, with the Government reasoning that predicted savings in energy costs will allow schools to make such an award.
Teachers in England have already received a 5 percent increase on 1st September 2022.
The Government claims that the total package being offered on pay for 2022/23 and 2023/24 will be worth 19.9% for M1 teachers over two years, and 11.7% for U3 teachers over two years.
The Government has also offered to remove any statutory requirement for performance related pay and undertaken to review several workload and inspection-related issues.
Teachers in Scotland have just reached a settlement with the Scottish Government, on the basis of the following:
- A 7 percent pay increase backdated to April 2022;
- A further 5 percent increase from 1st April 2023;
- A further 2 percent increase from 1st January 2024.
The Scottish Government claims the deal will see the average salary of a classroom teacher increase by just under 15 percent by January 2024.
On the face of it, for the majority of teachers in England, the proposed settlement is less favourable than that accepted by colleagues in Scotland.
The unions are putting the offer to members, but recommend it is rejected as simply not good enough.
The NASUWT said the following: "The offer falls short of what the Union has demanded from the Government both for pay restoration and on non-pay improvements.
"Nevertheless, we believe that it is right to hear what our members think about the offer as it stands."
As mentioned in my earlier article, I am more concerned with conditions of employment and workload than pay. I do not think the Government has made enough concessions in that area, so for that reason I will be rejecting the proposal.