Teacher strikes: Portsmouth schools face fresh industrial action after 'insulting' pay offer rejected
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The NEU said the offer amounted to most staff receiving a 4.3 per cent pay rise next year. A payment of £1,000 was also put on the table for the current school year, the union added.
An overwhelming 98 per cent of National Education Union (NEU) teacher members in England, who responded in a consultative ballot, voted to turn down the deal. Two further days of teacher strikes are planned on April 27 and May 2.
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Many schools in the Portsmouth area were forced to fully or partially close in February and March while industrial action took place. Last week, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan suggested that teachers could miss out on an increased pay deal this year if they rejected the offer.
Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, joint general secretaries of the NEU, said: ‘This resounding rejection of the Government’s offer should leave Gillian Keegan in no doubt that she will need to come back to the negotiating table with a much better proposal.
‘The offer shows an astounding lack of judgment and understanding of the desperate situation in the education system. We have today written to the Education Secretary informing her of the next two days of strike action on April 27 and May 2 that NEU teacher members in England will now be taking.
‘These strikes are more than three weeks away; Gillian Keegan can avoid them.’ Members of the NASUWT teaching union, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) are also being asked for feedback on the Government’s offer.
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Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, said last week that industrial action by school leaders will be ‘necessary’ if NAHT members decide to reject the Government’s ‘inadequate’ pay offer.
In January, a ballot of NAHT members failed to meet the mandatory 50% turnout threshold required for strike action. But the NAHT has said it could move to a second formal industrial action ballot if its members turn down the Government’s pay offer.
As reported in Sky News, the government said it was ‘a fair and reasonable offer’ which was ‘a good deal for teachers’.