Blow as teachers face cut in salaries
THOUSANDS of teachers in Sefton are facing the prospect of yet another pay cut this year.
With a decision that means 76% of teachers across the borough face a real-terms pay cut, the government will award pay rises expected to be up to 1% below inflation for certain grades.
Inflation is forecast to run at over 2.5% this financial year, but leadership and upper teaching scales will receive wage increases of just 1.5% and 2%.
In Sefton, 1,644 teachers now face seeing their wages decrease in real terms once again and nationally the figure is more than a quarter of a million.
The government has also now admitted that it will not fulfil its pledge to fully fund even the limited pay rise for all schools, leaving some with a shortfall once they have paid staff salaries. Education Secretary Damien Hinds had previously promised to be a “champion” for head teachers.
Labour’s candidate for Southport, Liz Savage, a former primary school teacher, said: “Theresa May vowed austerity was over and promised to end pay cuts for public servants but it seems this doesn’t apply to our schools and teachers.
“Teachers shouldn’t be so undervalued by the Tories and the problems our schools face should not be so easily dismissed.”
Sefton Conservative leader Cllr Terry Jones said “the road back from the brink of financial ruin” has been tough for most.
He said: “The teachers’ pay grant for 2018 amounted to some £508m – a figure that included provision for a teachers’ pay rise greater than that which they might have expected under the now withdrawn ‘public sector pay cap’.
“Public sector workers receive a pay rise each year, not everyone in the country enjoys that reliable uplift in pay and while, inevitably, some choose to say it is not enough – they are not brave enough to tell us what exactly would be enough.
“This Conservative government has honoured its commitments to public sector employees and at the same time managed to dig us out of the financial disaster that was the legacy of the last Labour administration. Neither the Chancellor or Mrs May said that ‘austerity was over’ – they said it was coming to an end – which is quite a different statement. Austerity was not a choice – it was required to enable recovery.”
Sefton Lib Dem leader John Wright, who is also a former teacher and college principal, says teachers are our “biggest asset”.
He said: “The Tory government has systematically under-funded schools, and suppressed teachers’ pay.
Liberal Democrats have demanded that the pay cap be removed, and that teachers get a fair pay rise.
“Teachers need to be able to get on with the job of teaching, doing their best for every single child, be fairly rewarded for their fantastic work, and have the necessary re-sources to do it”.