The Teachers’ Union Has Announced New Strikes After Rejecting a Pay Offer
In a salary dispute that is becoming increasingly contentious, teachers voted on Monday to reject the government’s most recent offer, which has resulted in the schools being prepared for a new wave of walkouts.
Since 98 percent of members of the National Education Union rejected the offer that the union termed as “insulting,” teachers are planning to walk out of their classrooms on April 27 and May 2.
The National Education Union (NEU) made the announcement today at its annual meeting in Harrogate that Over 191,000 teaching staff in England had cast their ballots against accepting the offer that was presented by Secretary Of education Gillian Keegan. Chants of “come on Gill, pay the money” were heard emanating from the delegates at that time.
This year, the majority of teachers in England received a wage increase of five percent for their work.
The government had suggested providing most employees with an additional one-time payment of £1,000 in addition to an average raise of 4.5 percent for the next academic year.
In addition to this, it had promised to establish a task force that would assist in lowering the amount of work that was expected of teachers. The joint general secretaries of the National Education Union (NEU), Kevin Courtney and Dr.
Mary Bousted, made the following statement: “As of today, we have written a letter to the Secretary Of education in England notifying her about the following two days of a general strike that NEU teacher representatives in England are going to be taking on April 27 and 2nd May”
Students in London will be hit especially hard, as NEU members already have delayed classes for 7 days this year due to strikes.
On strike days, Mr. Courtney and Dr. Boustedstated that the union will endeavor to ensure that students in Years 11 and 13, which are considered to be critical test years, had a “complete program of study.”
Downing Street expressed its strong displeasure with the National Education Union (NEU) for deciding to support further strikes, stating that this will add to a disruption that children have experienced in school over the previous few years.
The official spokesperson for the PM made the following statement: “For a week of class time previously missed and examinations quickly approaching, it is quite sad that the NEU has called for further strike action.”
Because the unbiased pay review body is only going to look at pay for the following year, this judgment would also result in a reduction in pay for educators for the current school year. This is because the unbiased pay review body is going to look at pay just in the following year, rather than the deal the government struck, they could have received an additional £1000 in those pay packets.
Given the extent to which children’s educational experiences have already been disrupted over the course of the past few years, we will continue to urge the NEU not to engage in strike action. We believe that the funded compensation offer that we have provided is just and reasonable to the situation.
Members of the NEU have cast their votes against it. The process of determining pay for the coming year will now fall within the purview of the pay review panel.
When the spokesman was asked if there were any plans for the government to return with such a revised offer, he stressed that there were not any such plans. He stated that although we are willing to continue talking about this, we consider this to be an acceptable and fair offer.
Ms. Keegan expressed her profound dissatisfaction with the outcome of the vote and stated that she believed the government had dealt in good faith.
The delegates at the meeting were warned by Dr. Bousted and Mr. Courtney that the offer demonstrated an incredible lack of judgment and awareness of the critical situation within the education system.
They made the statement that “no educator wants to go on strike.” They are also unable to accept this offer since it fails to tackle the decades of wage rises that have been below the rate of inflation, which has made them the lowest-paid educators in the UK.
There will be no improvement in the teacher hiring and retention crisis as a result of this offer, which is extremely detrimental to the schooling of our kids and teens. The fury felt by the profession as a whole has been unified under the leadership of the Secretary of Education because of this humiliating wage offer.
They also said that the union did not intend to disrupt schooling in the message that they sent to the guardians, and they said that the purpose of their action was to convince the government to make investments in the schooling of the current generation of kids and the professionals who educate them.
The Secretary Of Education issued the following statement in response to the announcement: After spending children just about a week’s worth of educational time and with examinations quickly approaching, it is absolutely heartbreaking that perhaps the NEU has asked for more walkouts.
After a week of negotiations in good conscience, the government gave educators a £1,000 payment in addition to this year’s pay raise, a commitment to drastically reduce workload, and a reported wage rise of 4.5 percent for next year, which is above combined inflation and typical earnings growth.
The offer was accepted and funds were provided, which included a significant additional investment of more than fifty million pounds in addition here to the high funding that was originally anticipated for school budgets.
The pay scale will now be determined by the neutral pay review board, which will also make recommendations about pay increases for the following year.
This comes as NEU president Louise Atkinson told colleagues today that she planned her 1st strike when she was nine years old. At lunch, she stated, she urged the girls in her class to sit on the try line as a form of protest against the school’s policy prohibiting them from playing football.
Ms. Atkinson has also criticised Ofsted, the school’s inspector, claiming that it is to blame for many problems in British educational institutions.
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