A second teaching union in England has vowed to strike if the government fails to compensate schools in full for next year’s teachers’ pay award.
The NASUWT union’s annual conference voted to reject any pay offer from the government that did not top up school budgets in June’s spending review, and to “move immediately to ballot members for industrial action”.
The vote means the NASUWT and the National Education Union (NEU), which together represent the bulk of England’s teaching workforce, are poised to strike if Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, cannot secure additional funding to match the 2025-26 pay award.
Last week, at its annual conference, the NEU agreed to launch a formal ballot on strike action if the government’s pay offer for teachers remained “unacceptable” and was not fully funded in the spending review.
Any decisions on pay will hinge on the recommendations of the independent School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), which have yet to be published.
The Department for Education (DfE) has told the STRB it favours a 2.8% wage increase, but the NEU and the NASUWT want an above-inflation pay rise and full compensation for school budgets, so that pay increases do not force cuts to be made elsewhere.
Dan Lister, the NASUWT’s junior vice-president, told delegates in Liverpool: “The government’s recommendation to the STRB for a 2.8% partially funded pay award is not acceptable.
“The government’s recommendation makes it clear that efficiencies will need to be made. We know what this means. It means restructures, it means redundancies, members losing their jobs and children losing their teachers.”
Patrick Roach, the NASUWT’s general secretary, said: “We know that the government has been handed the pay review body’s latest report and we hope that the pay review body has been ambitious in putting forward recommendations that will address the ongoing recruitment and retention crisis.”
If the spending review fails to top up school budgets, the two unions are likely to hold formal strike ballots among their members in the summer, setting the scene for potential school closures in the autumn.
In a video address to the NASUWT conference on Saturday, Phillipson told delegates: “The toughest financial inheritance in a generation has meant that we’ve already had to take some incredibly difficult decisions, and I’m afraid that more are still coming.”
The NASUWT scrapped a planned announcement about Roach’s replacement as general secretary, after he announced in October that he would be stepping down.
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The union was expected to reveal if the national executive’s preferred candidate – Matt Wrack, the former Fire Bridgades Union general secretary – had been appointed unopposed, or if his grassroots challengers had received enough branch nominations to trigger an open election.
Wrack’s candidacy has caused concern among members who fear his leftwing politics are a bad fit for the more moderate teaching union, while others have criticised his lack of a teaching or education background. Wrack, a former firefighter, led the FBU for 20 years until he lost re-election in January.
Union sources said an emergency meeting was held last week to consider legal advice over the appointment process and whether it should be extended. The NASUWT is thought to have last held a contested election for general secretary in the 1990s.
An NASUWT spokesperson said on Saturday: “Following the close of nominations, the union will undertake the required checks on the validity of all nominations received and an announcement will be made at the conclusion of this process next week.”
