Three education unions vote to accept teacher pay deal

Members of the National Education Union (NEU),  NAHT leaders’ union and NASUWT union have voted to accept the government’s 6.5 per cent teacher and leader pay deal.

In the NEU vote, 86  per cent voted in favour of accepting the deal, on a turnout of 60 per cent.

Eighty-five per cent of NAHT respondents were in favour of the deal, and 77.6 per cent of over 18,000 NASUWT voted yes to accepting the deal.

The NEU said the electronic ballot votes mean that further strike action over 2023/24 pay will not now go ahead in the autumn term.

Commenting on the results of the three ballots, Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretaries of the National Education Union, said: “The Government should be in no doubt that we will hold its feet to the fire on delivering for teachers and support staff on workload and funding and continue to represent the profession in future STRB consultations. It remains the view of the NEU that school and college funding is far from adequate. It remains a commitment of the NEU to campaign for further increases in teacher pay.

“Everyone in the school and colleges community deserves an education system that attracts and keeps teaching staff, and one that ensures every child gets the attention and support they deserve. Our campaign for a better-funded education system will not go away.”

Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, said: “Although the pay and funding offered by the government is not everything our members asked for, it is the largest ever recommendation from the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), and the additional funding and hardship fund provided by the government to fund the pay award makes the deal workable. We will continue to negotiate on the workload and wellbeing aspects of the government’s offer.”

In the NASUWT survey, just 18.4% of members responding said that the commitments announced by the Government to tackle excessive workload and working hours were sufficient. 

Dr Patrick Roach, NASUWT General Secretary, said: “Whilst NASUWT members are willing to accept the STRB pay award recommendation, they do not believe that it is sufficient redress for the impact of more than a decade of real-terms pay cuts, where the value of teachers’ pay has declined by 25%. Furthermore, our members do not agree that sufficient action is yet being taken to address their concerns over excessive workload and long working hours.

“We have today written to the Education Secretary calling on the Government to do more to address our members’ demands for pay restoration and immediate action to tackle excessive workload and long working hours."