Our preliminary ballot for a fully-funded, significantly above-inflation pay rise for school teachers in state-funded schools in England has closed. Members who voted, overwhelmingly decided reject an unfunded 2.8% pay award with 93.7% of respondents voting for action.
NEU conference during the Easter break voted for districts, branches and school groups to ‘immediately prepare” for a formal industrial ballot for strike action over the pay and funding offer for 2025/26. Should the current pay offer remain unacceptable, or if the government does not announce real terms funding increases in the June spending review, then the NEU will be launching a formal ballot.
The STRB report is sat on the desk of the secretary of state for Education.
Why you need to vote
If you did not vote in the indicative ballot that closed on 11th April I hope that you will choose to do so when we proceed to the formal ballot. The key reasons for our dispute are listed below. Another cut in funding will only amplify these issues across the sector:
- Competitiveness of teacher pay with other professions has never been lower
- Teacher recruitment targets have been missed by more than a third for the last three years
- Record numbers of teachers are leaving the profession before retirement
- The government admits schools can only afford a pay rise of 1.3 per cent
- We estimate that 76 per cent of primary schools and 94 per cent of secondaries will have to make cuts
- More schools are in deficit than at any point since at least 2010
- Just 3 per cent of primary schools and 6 per cent of secondaries say they are financially secure
- We have the highest primary class sizes in Europe and the highest secondary class sizes on record
- More than a million pupils are taught in classes of over 30
Inflation is currently around 2.8%, so in reality we are simply fighting for our pay not to be cut, and what we are awarded is fully funded to protect already tight school budgets. Even then, analysts are sceptical that this will remain low, suggesting this is the, ‘calm before the storm’.
In Hull we have already seen significant cost-saving measures implemented including redundancies amongst support staff, the removal of TLR payments, the employment of cheaper unqualified staff, increases in charges for before and after school provision, misuse of UPR staff to force additional responsibilities upon them, decreases in leadership & management time, cuts to resource budgets & increased abuse of the rarely cover principle.
But we can stop this! The 8 days of strike action taken in 2023 won a 6.5% increase and the mere threat of action in 2024 won a 5.5% increase – with more funding gained at the same time. It is essential that we urgently prepare as a district for the formal ballot and that you play your part by engaging with the formal ballot.
