School heads likely to strike in autumn and shut classes
SCHOOL heads are expected to go on strike in the autumn in co-ordinated industrial action that will shut down all classes.
Two teaching unions announced they have opened new ballots for strike action after rejecting the Government’s recent pay offer.
Members of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the National Education Union (NEU) rejected the pay and working conditions offer and ballots for members to vote on industrial action are opening today.
The NEU said it will be re-balloting teacher members working in England’s state-funded schools. The current mandate for industrial action ends on July 13.
The NAHT ballot will close on July 31, with education unions agreeing to coordinate strike action in the autumn term. Members are being asked: “Are you prepared to take part in industrial action consisting of a strike?”
Paul Whiteman, the NAHT general secretary, said: “After our members overwhelmingly rejected the previous inadequate offer, which was not properly funded, we appealed to the Government to get back around the table.
“So far, we have had no further meaningful talks and instead the Government has dropped its offer of a £1,000 cost-of-living payment as an apparent punishment for not accepting its deal.”
He said his members had been “left with no other choice” but to ballot for strike action.
Ballot papers sent from the NEU will ask members: “Are you prepared to take part in strike action in furtherance of this dispute?”
The NEU ballot will run until July 28. NEU joint secretaries Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney said: “The pay and funding offer made by [Education Secretary] Gillian Keegan following six days of talks in March was simply not good enough, and teachers branded it an ‘insult’.
“Our members rejected it by 98 per cent on a two-thirds turnout, a very clear message to Government that they must try far harder.”
The union leaders said four separate teaching unions would be balloting for strike action in the new school year in the autumn.
A Department for Education spokesman said: ““Whether it was delivering the £2 billion funding uplift that unions asked for in the autumn or making a fair offer on pay, our priority has been finding a solution to end this dispute and the disruption children and families are facing.”