National Education Union Members Vote Against Government’s Proposal, Announcing Further Strikes
Schools across England are preparing for additional teacher strikes this spring after the UK’s largest education union, the National Education Union (NEU), announced that its members had overwhelmingly rejected the government’s latest pay offer.
A significant 98% of NEU members, who participated in a consultative ballot, voted against the proposed deal. As a result, the union has confirmed that two further strike days will take place on April 27 and May 2.
The ballot result was made public at the NEU’s annual conference in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, early on Monday. The strikes are part of an ongoing dispute with the government over pay, which had already caused partial and full school closures during previous strikes in February and March.
The government had offered teachers a £1,000 one-off payment for the current academic year (2022/23) and an average 4.5% pay increase for the following year (2023/24). However, the NEU, which deemed the offer “insulting,” is determined to secure a more favourable deal.
In response, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan had warned that teachers could miss out on future pay rises if they rejected the offer. However, the NEU’s joint general secretaries, Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, have called for the government to return to the negotiating table with an improved proposal, expressing their discontent with what they called a “lack of judgment” in the original offer.
“Gillian Keegan must now recognise the strength of feeling within the education system,” said Bousted and Courtney. “The situation is dire, and the current offer does not address the pressing needs of teachers.”
Other unions, such as NASUWT, ASCL, and NAHT, are also consulting their members on the government’s proposal. Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, has warned that school leaders may be forced to take industrial action if their members reject the deal.
