Teacher strikes back on cards after "overwhelming" pay offer rejection

Monday 04 March 2019

Teacher strikes are back on the cards after members of a major union "overwhelmingly" rejected a new pay offer from the government.

The National Education Union in Jersey said its members were against a new three-year pay deal proposed last week, which would have seen them receive a rise equivalent to the inflation (RPI) rate plus 1.3% on 1 January next year, and will now be setting a date to strike.

Both the NEU and NASUWT called their members to strike on 26 February but suspended the action in order to consult members on the revised pay offer made by the government at the eleventh hour.

While the government, which had previously protested "there is no more money", did not revise its previous pay offer for 2018 and 2019, they bolted on an above-inflation wage pledge for 2020. The ‘new’ offer would have seen teachers receive a rise equivalent to the inflation (RPI) rate plus 1.3% on 1 January next year.

In full, the offer was:

• For 2018: 2.0% consolidated increase wef 1/1/18; plus 1.1% unconsolidated wef 1/1/18 (already imposed);
• For 2019: 2.0% consolidated increase wef 1/1/19; plus 1.0% unconsolidated wef 1/1/19 (already imposed);  
• For 2020: a rise equivalent to the September 2019 RPI (all items index) plus 1.3%, consolidated, and paid with effect from 1/1/20.  There are no minimum or maximum caps attached to this offer.

Pictured: Strike action could now be back on the cards for NEU members.

While the Government hoped the revised deal would placate teaching staff, NEU members have now overwhelmingly rejected it, as Andy Woolley, NEU Regional Secretary, said."They reject this offer as insufficient to deal with repeated years of below inflation rises and there is a real mood of anger that their employer does not value them."

Mr Woolley said the union has informed the SEB of the rejection, adding that they are now looking to reinstate our strike action "at a date in the near future."

We’ve just emailed JerseyNEU members about the result of the pay offer survey. An overwhelming rejection of the latest offer. We’ve asked the NEU Action Officers to approve another strike date and informed the States negotiators that their offer is not enough.

— JerseyNEU (@JerseyNEU) March 4, 2019

President Brendan Carolan said that union representatives had been "blown away" by how quickly members had rejected the revised deal.

“The whole idea the SEB has come up with of altering the deal to a three year one in order to end this dispute in the public sector is very much like Churchill’s strategy when at the Admiralty during World War One”, he said.

“Realising that the western front was stalemated he advocated opening a new front by attacking through Gallipoli and the Dardanelles. Brilliant in theory but an absolute disaster in practice. ‘If you are not really prepared to commit enough energy and resources and delay taking action until it is too late, what else can one expect?’”

NASUWT - the island's other major teaching union - are consulting staff about the deal. They are expected to release an update in the near future.