Pupils face chaos this yr as academics threaten strikes over pay
Teachers have threatened nationwide strikes over pay and conditions – just days before junior doctors are due hold their own walkouts.
The NASUWT union said it would mobilise its 300,000 members in mass industrial action if ministers do not commit to a big pay rise and more funding.
The union passed a motion at its annual conference in Birmingham today saying it will ‘ballot for national strike action’ if the Government does not meet its demands.
These include a ‘fully funded, real-terms above inflation pay increase’, a reduction in working hours, and more investment in special educational needs.
Any strikes could take place later this year, potentially causing school closures and leaving parents having to find last-minute childcare.
The Government has proposed a 6.5 per cent pay rise over three years, but the NASUWT has called it ‘pitiful’ and said much of it will have to be taken from elsewhere in school budgets.
It also hit out at Labour’s proposals to give mainstream schools more responsibility for pupils with special educational needs, which it said would create more workload for the same pay.
General Secretary Matt Wrack said: ‘Nobody in the real world has any confidence whatsoever that there will be sufficient resources to actually deliver.
Teachers have threatened nationwide strikes over pay and conditions – just days before junior doctors are due hold their own walkouts (pictured: NASUWT General Secretary Matt Wrack)
‘I have said that to Bridget Phillipson on a number of occasions.
‘Increasing expectations at the same time as cutting resources is a recipe for failure, a recipe for disaster.’
He also hit out at Labour’s plan to get every school to join a multi-academy trust, saying bosses of these organisations draw large salaries and ‘are building their little empires’.
‘Some live in the world, the wonderful world, shall we say, of Ken and Barbie,’ he told members.
It comes as the National Education Union (NEU), another teaching union, is conducting an indicative ballot to see whether there is appetite for a formal strike vote.
It means the two unions could coordinate joint walk-outs to maximise disruption.
The Government’s special educational needs reforms will mean an extra £1.6 billion for mainstream schools, £1.8 billion for a bank of specialists in every area, and £200 million for training over the next three years.
A Department for Education spokesman said: ‘To restore teaching as the highly valued profession it should be we have taken action to boost teacher pay, tackle poor pupil behaviour, high workload and poor wellbeing so even more teachers stay on in the profession and thrive.’
Medics are due to strike for six days from 7 April, their 15th walkout since 2023.
