England’s Teachers Reject Pay Offer, Prepare for New Strikes

Emily Ashton
·3 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

(Bloomberg) -- Teachers in England rejected a government pay offer, paving the way for further strikes and providing a fresh blow to Rishi Sunak’s government.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Ministers had proposed a one-time, £1,000 ($1,230) payment to teachers for the 2022-2023 tax year and a 4.3% rise the following year. But some 98% of members of the National Education Union who cast ballots rejected that offer, the union announced at the start of its annual conference on Monday.

The vote means teachers will now go ahead with walkouts planned for April 27 and May 2, disrupting schools as pupils prepare for annual exams, and causing a knock-on effect for working parents.

It piles pressure on Sunak just as his administration appeared poised to draw a line under months of industrial unrest that’s hit the country’s schools, railways, hospitals and postal service. Education Secretary Gillian Keegan called Monday’s vote “disappointing.”

“The offer was funded, including major new investment of over half a billion pounds, in addition to the record funding already planned for school budgets,” Keegan said in a statement. “The NEU’s decision to reject it will simply result in more disruption for children and less money for teachers today.”

The NEU said the offer was not fully funded and around half of schools would need to make further cuts to cover the pay rises. Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, the union’s joint general secretaries, said Keegan must now come back to the negotiating table with a better proposal.

Exams

“These strikes are more than three weeks away: Gillian Keegan can avoid them,” they said in an emailed statement. “No teacher wants to be on strike. Nor can they accept this offer that does nothing to address the decades of below-inflation pay increases, making them the worst-paid teachers in the UK.”

The scale of the rejection, on a 66% turnout, suggests the dispute is far from being resolved. Sunak’s spokesman Max Blain told reporters on Monday there are “no plans” to draw up a fresh pay offer for teachers.

Keegan said the matter is now in the hands of the independent review body that makes recommendations on pay deals for public sector workers.

Pay for experienced teachers has fallen by one fifth in real terms since 2010, and many are leaving the profession due to heavy workloads and long hours, according to the NEU. The union said it was asking schools to plan with head teachers to ensure GCSE and A-Level students would have a full program of education on the upcoming strike days.

Doctors

The government had looked as though it was heading toward resolving a series of industrial disputes when it entered into talks with teaching leaders last month. It had been buoyed by a potential deal with nurses, midwives and ambulance workers, which health union members are currently considering. There have also been deals to end some action by railway workers.

Meanwhile the British Medical Association on Monday said they’ve had “constructive talks” with the Treasury over pay for senior doctors known as consultants — including on pension reforms — and pushed back its planned date for opening a ballot for strikes to May 15.

Britain’s Public Service Crisis May Be Final Straw for Tories

Still, other disputes rumble on. Junior doctors will strike again for four days this month, threatening the worst disruption to England’s struggling National Health Service since walkouts began in December. More than 130,000 civil servants are planning to strike on April 28, and Passport Office staff began a five-week walkout on Monday.

Blain said that while the government is in discussions with civil service unions, he’s not aware of any formal talks on pay.

--With assistance from Joe Mayes.

(Updates with quote from Sunak’s spokesman and further context from eighth paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.