We have today confirmed we are in dispute with Education Secretary Gillian Keegan over her blatant attempts to frustrate the work of the independent school teachers’ pay review process.
The Education Secretary has deliberately delayed issuing a remit to the School Teachers’ Pay Review Body (STRB) for reasons which the NASUWT believes are related to the forthcoming General Election.
The Government has a track record in interfering in the pay review process for the teaching profession and it is the NASUWT’s view that the failure to issue a remit to the STRB breaches international law, specifically Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 11 gives members the right to be represented by the NASUWT in collective bargaining over pay.
NASUWT General Secretary Dr Patrick Roach has taken the unprecedented step of writing to the Education Secretary informing her the NASUWT is in dispute with her over this issue.
The NASUWT remains in dispute with Ms Keegan over the failure of the Government to agree the Union’s demand for a fully funded restorative pay award for all teachers employed in state funded schools in England, and to resolve the issue of excessive workload and long working hours.
Dr Roach said: “The Education Secretary is deliberately interfering in the pay review process by her failure to issue a remit to the STRB, in spite of the commitments she gave to unions in the summer in order to avoid the prospect of nationally coordinated strike action.
“Not content with damaging the independence of the STRB by not allowing it to do its work, Gillian Keegan is adding insult to injury by preventing the established pay review body process from taking place.
“It is regrettable but perhaps unsurprising that the Secretary of State is seeking to delay the pay review body process after the Chancellor’s autumn statement confirmed the Government’s intention to inflict further real terms pay cuts on hardworking teachers and other public sector workers.
“It is plain for all to see the utter contempt for the teaching profession from a Government that is desperately out of touch and hell-bent on paying teachers as little as they can get away with.”
