The National Education Union (NEU) will hold an indicative strike ballot over pay, after branding the government’s planned rise an “insult” to the profession.
Members will be balloted on their “willingness to take industrial action” if ministers do not “commit to a significant and fully funded” increase beyond what has already been proposed.
This comes after the Department for Education told the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) a 2.8 per cent pay award “would be appropriate” for 2025-26 last month, but that most schools would have to find efficiencies to fund it.
NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “The current proposal of 2.8 per cent is not sufficient to even start to address the crisis in recruitment and retention.
“The suggestion that an unfunded pay award can be paid for by making ‘efficiencies’ is an insult to a profession who have already endured 14 years of austerity.”
Fears schools will cut staff
Kebede added that no leader “will be able to identify efficiencies without cutting staff or resources or both”.
In its evidence to the STRB, the DfE stated 2.8 per cent “would maintain the competitiveness of teachers’ pay, despite the challenging financial backdrop the government is facing”.
At the budget in October, the department said the £1.3 billion of additional 2025-26 schools funding, as well as continuing to fund the impact of this year’s pay award, would also have to go towards next year’s rise too.
It comes after teachers were awarded a rise of 5.5 per cent this year and 6.5 per cent last year.
The IfS has estimated that even after this year’s pay rise, pay of experienced teachers will be around 9 per cent lower in real-terms than in 2010, with earlier career teachers less affected because of recent large increases to starting salaries.
The indicative ballot will take place at the beginning of March.
Teachers will be asked “about their willingness to take industrial action if the government do not commit to a significant and fully funded pay rise above what has currently been outlined”.
If they show a willingness, then the union’s national conference will decide whether to proceed to a formal vote in the summer.
