Teachers will strike next year if they don’t get a proper pay rise, union bosses warn
Bosses of two major teaching unions have warned that teachers could follow junior doctors and strike next year unless Labor gives pay rises and closes school funding gaps.
Matt Wrack, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), said: Independent It was stated that unless wages and conditions improved, strike talks were “inevitable” at the union conference to be held next April. He argued that cash-strapped schools are caught in a “vicious circle” because increases in teacher salaries must come from existing school budgets that have already expanded.
Mr Wrack warned members that “change was expected” after Labor won the general election, but they were “not convinced that change was being delivered sufficiently or quickly enough”.
Meanwhile, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT), warned there was a “real prospect of industrial difficulty” next year, claiming teachers could no longer tolerate the “burden of pressure” being placed on them.
The latest School Workforce Census found there will be almost 3,000 fewer state primary and nursery teachers in England in 2024, with one in five teachers in primary and secondary schools (19.4 per cent) leaving the profession within two years of qualification. This figure rises to over a quarter (26.7 percent) three years later.
In May the government accepted the recommendation of the independent School Teachers Review Board (STRB) for a 4 per cent pay increase for the 2025-26 academic year; Mr Wrack described the advice as “unhelpful” when teachers’ real earnings have “fallen over the last 15 years”.
“There have been changes in pensions that have worsened pensions. Therefore, the package teachers receive is not the package it was 15 years ago.
“IT [the STRB] “It seems to us that we’re going to have two or three years of low wage rises, which may even be below the government’s measure of inflation, but certainly below the way we assess inflation using the RPI, and also that those wage rises will not be adequately funded,” he said.
Describing it as a “vicious circle”, he explained: “So we get a low salary increase, but if we get a slightly higher salary increase, it will only worsen the crisis in schools.”
Asked whether England would see a teachers’ strike next year, the union boss said: “I think for teachers in our union there is undoubtedly a debate about industrial action at our conference next April that is inevitable. I think it will at least emerge as an option that people will consider.”
The warning came after junior doctors launched a five-day strike action from 17 to 22 December as they continued their battle with the government over training and pay.
While Mr Wrack, a former TUC president and Fire Brigades Union chief, acknowledged there had been “some easing of pay”, he said the government had failed to address “pressures” on teachers which he said were caused by long-term underinvestment, such as work overload and a recruitment and retention crisis.
Mr Whiteman acknowledged industrial challenges next year were a “real possibility”.
He said: “I don’t know whether it’s a strike or another industrial action, but I think it’s the whole package of challenges that will come to a head.
“I don’t think it’s going to be just about pay, I think it’s going to be about workload and working hours and just the intensity and danger of the work.”
While he argues that the government has a “huge passion for education”, he does not believe this ambition is yet backed by “the right resources”.
Mr Whiteman insisted warnings of a possible strike were “not loud” but said NAHT officials were “feeling the brunt of the pressure on behalf of our members”.
“They’ve carried this burden for so long, I don’t think they can take it much longer.”
Meanwhile, Teach First chief executive James Toop called for “cross-government prioritization of teacher pay” after a survey published earlier this year showed one in 10 teachers could leave the profession in the next two years.
While acknowledging that the Department for Education was in a “really difficult situation”, he said: Independent ministers need to introduce a “more comprehensive strategy” for teacher recruitment.
He said: “We really need to focus on raising the status of teaching again. From our perspective it’s a fantastic job. It’s extremely challenging… But when you compare starting salaries to law and accounting, teachers’ starting salaries are still much lower.”
Revealing the scale of the problem facing schools, Aidan Sadgrove, chief executive of Brigshaw Learning Partnership, a multi-academy trust that oversees seven schools in East Leeds, warned that the schools it runs face a huge funding gap.
“We’ve seen a 0.5 per cent increase in our funding. Inflation is running at 2.6 per cent… Quite a lot of unfunded costs have left us probably hundreds of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of pounds short. And we’re only seven schools, aren’t we? We’re a smaller trust.”
Matilda Browne, co-teacher at Reach Academy Feltham and Reach Academy Hanworth Park outside London, warned that “pressure on the system” meant some students were at risk of “falling through the gaps”.
She said: “Within this very strained system, some of our families may be interacting with the school and have appointments with health and social care or SEND – and it feels really disjointed because the whole system is strained, and that can mean that some families and some children in particular are falling through those gaps.”
Ms Browne said many schools were taking the lack of funding issue into their own hands and “didn’t think we could expect the government to provide the support that is urgently needed”.
“I have kids at my school who desperately need so many different things now,” she said IndependentHe explains that they are trying to address the lack of resources by collaborating with other schools to benefit from the expertise provided by different teachers.
Meanwhile, TUC general secretary Paul Nowak warned that the Labor government will face some tough decisions next year from not only the public sector but also the private sector due to 14 years of wage stagnation.
he said Independent: “I think the government should recognize that there is a problem, and it’s not just in the public sector. This is true in both the public and private sectors. We had 14 years of de facto wage stagnation under the Conservative Party. If wages had risen in those 14 years on their normal pre-2008 trend, the average worker would have been £300 a week better off.”
He warned: “Pay has to be part of the solution next year. I think it’s not just about pay. I think it’s a much more strategic discussion with unions about pay, about workload, about work-life balance, about the rollout of new technology.”
“If I had one criticism of what the government has done so far in health and other important parts of our public services, it would be that even where investment has been made, these big, strategic conversations have not yet happened.”
A Department for Education spokesman said: “Through our Plan for Change, we are making teaching the highly valued profession it should be. Our latest proposals mean teacher salaries will rise by almost 17 per cent across this parliament, equating to a significant real increase over five years.
“Despite extremely tough choices on public spending, mainstream school funding will rise again next year to almost £51bn to help every child succeed and thrive.
“We help schools get the best value for money in areas such as energy, recruitment and banking, so every penny is invested in providing opportunities for young people.”
