Teachers in England and Wales have voted in favour of industrial action as the UK suffers worsening disruptions amid a wave of strikes in the public sector.
The National Education Union (NEU)—the largest education union in the UK—said on Monday that it plans to hold seven days of walkouts in February and March in a dispute over pay.
The union said 90 percent of its teacher members in England and Wales who voted in the ballot backed strike action, and it passed the 50 percent ballot turnout required by law.
The Department for Education (DfE) has offered a 5 percent pay rise to most teachers for the current school year, but the NEU is demanding a fully funded, above-inflation pay rise.
Updated DfE guidance suggests that agency staff and volunteers could be used to cover classes on strike days, with schools expected to remain open where possible, although remote learning is also an option and the most vulnerable pupils are to be given priority.
But Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), said the DfE guidance is “at best naive,” as it is “based on local disruption rather than the national walkouts planned by the NEU.”
‘Unsustainable’
Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, joint NEU general secretaries, said in a statement that the current situation is “unsustainable” and teachers are leaving the profession “in droves.”During an online briefing, Courtney said: “The England teacher ballot result alone is the biggest ballot result of any union in recent times. The government needs to listen—these are big votes for strike action.”
Bousted said the results show “the NEU members will not stand by and see the education service they work so hard for and they care for so much be sacrificed because teachers and support staff are being driven from the profession they love because of a toxic mix of low pay and excessive workload.”
Also on Monday, NAHT revealed that 87 percent of members in England taking part in the union’s pay ballot voted in favour of action short of strikes, while 64 percent supported strikes. But the turnout was 42 percent, which is below the threshold required by law.
NAHT has said it is considering re-running its industrial action ballot in England over concerns that the democratic process has been compromised amid postal strikes.
In Wales, 95 percent of members taking part in the NAHT ballot backed action short of strikes and 75 percent supported strikes, with a turnout of 55 percent, passing the legal threshold.
‘Disappointing’
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said NEU’s vote for strike action is “disappointing” and “will have a damaging impact on pupils’ education and wellbeing.”She said the government had “already met the unions’ request for an additional £2 billion in school funding, which will take real-terms spending on schools to its highest level in history.”
She told the BBC, “It is only one union that has voted to go on strike, with only 53 percent of their members actually responding.”
She added: “It is deeply disappointing for parents and children, and of course it will have an impact on children’s education. We all know that during the pandemic they have had a lot of disruption to their education and we are still trying to catch up from that, so it is deeply disappointing.”
The children’s commissioner for England also said she was “disappointed” by the news.
Dame Rachel de Souza said: “I know the decision to strike will not have been taken lightly for any teacher and the vote has been far from unanimous—but it comes in the wake of huge disruption from the pandemic and will add to the challenges already faced by so many pupils who are catching up on lost learning.
Multiple Strikes
The teaching strikes are the latest to be announced in a wave of industrial action which has seen stoppages across various sectors in recent months.Aslef union announced on Tuesday that train drivers will stage fresh strikes on Feb. 1 and 3 after the rejection of a pay offer.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing in England are also due to walk out again on Wednesday and Thursday, and have announced two more strikes in England and Wales on Feb. 6 and 7.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman said: “We’re in no doubt that this strike action, some of which will fall on the same day or days, will cause significant disruption to the public—whether it’s children having their education disrupted or the public trying to go about their daily lives on their commute.
“We don’t think it’s the right course of action, we continue to call unions to step away from the picket lines and continue with discussions.”
