DELEGATES at the annual conference of the National Education Union (NEU) in Harrogate yesterday voted for districts, branches and school groups to ‘immediately prepare’ for a formal industrial action ballot over the pay and funding offer for 2025/26.
The motion, passed at the union’s conference, said the government’s recommended 2.8% pay rise for September is ‘inadequate and unfunded’ and it will prevent the government achieving its target of recruiting 6,500 more teachers.
The debate came after a majority of NEU teacher members in England who took part in a preliminary ballot said they would be willing to take strike action to secure a fully funded, significantly higher pay award.
Daniel Kebede, the union’s general secretary, said: ‘Members of the National Education Union have put the government on notice.
‘The government’s unfunded and inadequate 2.8 per cent proposed increase would mean another pay cut against inflation and would see teacher pay fall further behind pay in other professions.
‘The result would be an intensification of the already critical recruitment and retention problems, so the pay cut would affect children and families too.
‘The government admits it has not provided enough funding for staff pay rises in 2025. As a result, 76 per cent of primary schools and 94 per cent of secondary schools will have to make cuts.
‘The government must turn the page on failed austerity and instead invest properly in education. It must publish the STRB report immediately and commit to the pay correction needed to reverse the huge pay cuts against inflation since 2010.
‘NEU members will continue to fight for the pay levels needed to properly value, recruit and retain the teachers our education service needs.
‘The NEU will closely monitor developments and will consider the next steps in our campaign to fund fair pay.’
