UK: Teachers rejected pay proposal, announcing two additional days of strikes

The United Kingdom has been facing waves of industrial action from key sectors, whose workers are protesting against pay and working conditions. In a blow to the British government, the country’s teachers rejected its pay proposal and announced further industrial action.

On Monday, the National Education Union said that 98 percent of the teachers it represents have voted in the ballot to reject the offer of a one-off payment this year of £1000 and an average pay increase of 4.5 percent in the next fiscal year. This comes as tens of thousands of teachers across the country have taken strike action demanding a pay increase that was enough to keep up with inflation.

“This resounding rejection of the government’s offer should leave education minister Gillian Keegan in no doubt that she will need to come back to the negotiating table with a much better proposal,” said NEU joint General Secretaries Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney in a statement.

The NEU said its teachers would take two additional days of strike action on April 27 and on May 2. Keegan expressed disappointment in the decision by the union, suggesting that the government does not plan on further negotiations.

“Pay will now be decided by the independent pay review body, which will recommend pay rises for the next year,” said Keegan.

The Conservative government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that pay increases could only exacerbate inflation.

Separately, teachers in Wales have put an end to their strike action after they accepted a pay proposal of an additional three percent pay increase for 2022/2023 with a 1.5 percent one-off and a government-backed five percent increase for the following year. The largest teaching union in Scotland has also accepted a pay proposal that amounted to a 14.6 percent pay increase for most teachers by January 2024.

Friday last week, workers for Amazon’s warehouse in central England announced that they would take six more days of strike action in April over pay, according to the GMB trade union. GMB said over 560 workers at the warehouse would stage walkouts from April 16-18 and from April 21-23, following the first strike actions by the workers in January, with seven more days in February and March.