Teachers in England to stage fresh strikes in long-running dispute over pay

AUSTERITY-HIT teachers across England are set to strike once again over pay next month, the National Education Union (NEU) announced over the weekend.

Following five national and three regional walkouts earlier this year, teachers nationwide will down tools on July 5 and 7, with most primaries and secondaries likely to fully or partially close, the union warned.

It urged Tory ministers to reopen negotiations after members of all four of the country’s education unions overwhelmingly rejected a massively below-inflation 4.3 per cent wage deal for the current financial year.

The NEU and fellow teachers’ union NASUWT, alongside school leaders’ unions NAHT and ASCL, also want any new pay rise to be funded by extra money from the government rather than from schools already overstretched budgets.

NEU joint general secretaries Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney stressed that it is within the grasp of Education Secretary Gillian Keegan for the industrial action to be halted.

“Time and again [we] have called for the Education Secretary to get around the negotiation table to settle this dispute — time and again our calls have fallen on stony ground.”

They repeated demands for the Chichester MP to publish the latest report from the sector’s pay review body, which has allegedly defied government pressure and recommended a 6.5 per cent salary deal.

“Gillian Keegan says that she will publish the report in her own good time. This causes huge uncertainty for schools and is hugely disrespectful to head teachers.

“Unlike her counterparts in Scotland and Wales, where the pay disputes have been settled, she has wilfully turned her back on teachers in England.

“No-one wants to take strike action but when faced with an Education Secretary who clearly has no interest in settling this dispute, teachers are left with no option.”

The Department for Education said further walkouts would cause “real damage” to pupil learning. It previously claimed that schools would receive an extra £2.3 billion over the next two years.

The latest strike days are covered by the union’s current six-month mandate for walkouts.

Its reballot to continue the dispute until Christmas opened last month and will close at the end of July. 

NASUWT, NAHT and ASCL are also reballoting their members, with the possibility of co-ordinated strikes in the autumn term if the dispute rumbles on.