Teaching unions will hold meetings this week in a bid to quell discontent amongst the workforce as the Education Minister waits to hear whether his 5.5% pay offer will be accepted.
It’s understood the offer’s timing, and wording, has caused widespread anger over concerns about workload arrangements and a reset to industrial relations going forward.
While unions are expected to recommend the offer is accepted – though one union, the NAHT, has not issued any guidance and will allow members to make their own decisions – the threat of a renewal of industrial action remains.
Teacher-led workload campaign think1265 urged education stakeholders to show leadership over finding a resolution to the pay dispute.
“We’d been campaigning for the management side to include something which safeguarded teachers’ rights under the latest workload agreement in this pay offer,” said campaign co-founder Helen Doogan.
“But the wording of the offer made it look like teachers were being asked to forfeit rights instead. And we note that when asked about this, Mr Givan was unclear in his answers.”
The pay offer includes an invitation to shift the deadline for pay negotiations in the 2025-26 year to allow the Minister time to organise department finances, and the management side requested that unions hold off on industrial action, or balloting for industrial action, during this extended window.
“Many teachers saw this as asking them to give up their right to take legal industrial action at all,” she added.
“Our fear is that the postponement of action in January turned a dispute into a drama.
“Now a poorly worded pay offer risks turning that drama into a full-on crisis in the sector.
“The Minister has been clear in his desire to see stability in schools, so if union members reject this offer we are calling on all stakeholders to show calm leadership and quickly rework the deal, fixing the ambiguous and frightening language.”
Brian Banks, co-founder of the campaign, added: “Once we had more information from the teaching unions about what the different clauses meant, the whole package looked much more reasonable.
“However, by that time many angry teachers had already voted, and judging by the fury on teachers’ online forums many of them had already opted to reject the offer. It felt like an opportunity missed.”
NAHT national secretary Graham Gault told his members that accepting the offer does not rule out future strikes.
“There is a lot of misinformation on social media about that aspect of the deal. I want members to vote on the basis of truth instead of hysteria,” he added.
“Unions are asked to sign up to work collectively along with each other, the employing authorities and the department to create conditions in which industrial action isn’t required.
“The deal actually ties the department and the employing authorities into delivering improvements for the workforce.”
The results of the union members vote from the main unions – NAHT, INTO, NASUWT, NEU and UTU – are expected later this week.
The Minister said on Monday that “there isn’t more money on the table”.
“I have had to identify £48m from within my department this year,” he told the Assembly.“Next year that will lead to an £83m increase in terms of the payroll for our teaching profession and that has been incredibly difficult. The ability for the Executive to provide further funding for this isn’t there.”