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The United Kingdom is facing waves of strikes from workers in key public sectors in the country. In a blow to the British government, members of a major teaching union rejected its pay offer.
Over the weekend, the NASUWT teachers union said on Saturday that its members voted against the pay proposal offered by the government. The union said that 87 percent of its members voted against accepting the deal, while a separate survey showed that 77 percent have said they were willing to vote for taking strike action in order to get their desired pay deal.
The pay proposal by the government offered teachers a one-off payment this year of $1241.30 and an average pay increase of 4.5 percent in the next fiscal year. The strikes come as workers have demanded higher wages to keep up with double-digit inflation rates in the country and the rising cost of living. The strikes have resulted in disruptions in key sectors and put added pressure on the government to address the concerns.
“The government’s pay offer failed to come close to addressing the concerns over pay and working conditions of teachers, and this has rightly been rejected by our members,” said NASUWT General Secretary Patrick Roach.
NASUWT is the latest trade union to reject a pay deal, following the decision by the National Education Union, the largest union in the UK, to reject the government’s pay proposal and set two dates for strike action. Back in January, NASUWT also failed to reach the voter threshold to call for additional strikes and said at the time that it would hold another vote on whether to take industrial action.
Meanwhile, junior doctors in the UK have already started their four-day walkout, marking the most disruptive of strikes in the history of the country’s National Health Service. The four-day walkout would disrupt a quarter of a million appointments and the cancellation of some operations, with some hospitals saying that up to half of planned treatment was affected by the industrial action taken by the doctors.
The British Medical Association has asked for a 35 percent increase in pay but received no offer from Health Secretary Steve Barclay.
