The biggest teaching union could ballot members over pay as soon as June, with strike action in the autumn, its general secretary has said.
The NEU teaching union’s Daniel Kebede called on the education secretary to publish the teacher pay review body report “immediately”.
Speaking to the press today at the union’s annual conference in Harrogate, Mr Kebede said: “We know that it’s on her desk currently. Once we do have that made public and we are aware of the funding settlement, the executive will consider the next steps”.
An urgent motion was carried this morning calling on the NEU’s executive to launch a formal strike ballot if the final outcome of the pay review body process remains unacceptable, or if the government does not announce a real-terms funding increase at the June Spending Review.
Mr Kebede today said a formal ballot could potentially open up in June.
Asked if this could mean strike action in September, he said: “We’ll have to wait and see. Obviously, we really want to avoid strike action.”
He added that strike action was “completely avoidable” if the government took steps to remove schools from “crisis” point.
‘Very convinced’ teachers will vote in ballot
This comes after an indicative ballot of NEU members found the vast majority (83.4 per cent) of those who voted would be willing to take strike action to secure a higher, fully-funded pay rise than the Department for Education’s recommended 2.8 per cent.
However, turnout for the indicative ballot was only 47.2 per cent of eligible NEU members.
Asked whether he was concerned about this turnout, Mr Kebede said the NEU would put “every ounce of resource” into reaching the 50 per cent turnout needed for a formal ballot and he was “very convinced” this would be successful.
The urgent motion voted on this morning at the annual conference also called on the union’s executive to “consider disengaging” from the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) process if the government “does not accept any STRB recommendation above inflation”.
Consumer Prices Index inflation was at the last count, though this is expected to fall when updated figures are released later this week.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has said that any move towards strike action by teachers would be “indefensible”.
Asked about this, Mr Kebede said it was “the underfunding of education” that was indefensible.
Teacher pay offer
Jack Worth, workforce lead at the National Foundation for Educational Research, said last month the STRB should propose a pay rise of at least 3.7 per cent.
The DfE said most schools would need to find efficiencies next year to meet its 2.8 per cent pay rise recommendation. It later estimated the headroom in school budgets only amounts to covering a pay rise of around 1.3 per cent.
The government has yet to make a formal pay offer. The next step is for the STRB to make a recommendation.
The DfE indicated last year it was aiming to announce the pay award as soon as possible after April 2025.
Last year NEU members voted overwhelmingly for strike action in an indicative ballot on the previous government’s pay recommendation. However, they then voted against moving to a formal ballot.
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