Teachers are set to walk out twice over the next month after rejecting a government pay offer.
Earlier this month, the National Education Union (NEU) rejected the government’s latest pay offer as “insulting”, paving the way for school strikes to take place on Thursday 27 April and Tuesday 2 May.
Thousands of British workers from a host of public-facing professions have undertaken industrial action over the course of the winter, from train drivers to NHS nurses, civil servants and postal workers, demanding salary increases and improved working conditions to ensure they are not left behind by the cost of living crisis.
After a period of intensive talks with unions, the government had offered teachers a £1,000 one-off payment for the current school year and an average 4.5 per cent pay rise for staff next year.
However, the NEU said a members ballot had returned an “overwhelming” 98 per cent vote in favour of rejecting the deal from a 66 per cent turnout.
The union said it has scheduled walkouts for Thursday 27 April and Tuesday 2 May but urged education secretary Gillian Keegan to return to the table with an improved offer.
Members of HM Passport Office in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland will also continue a five-week strike, which will end on May 5, over the Public and Commercial Services union’s (PCS) long-running dispute over pay, pensions, redundancy terms and job security.
Journalists at the BBC’s local networks will also go on strike on May 5 over job cuts prompted by stations sharing content.
The plan is for more radio shows to be networked across several stations after 14:00 on weekdays and weekends, meaning the public broadcaster would produce 20 afternoon programmes across England and 10 programmes in the evening.
A BBC spokesperson said: “We are protecting all live local output from 6-2pm on weekdays as well as all sports programming across the week on every station. In addition, a number of our larger stations will retain their own dedicated local programmes in the afternoon across the week.
“Even where we propose to share some local programming across neighbouring stations in the afternoon, we will still produce 20 different local programmes across England.”
While some of the disputes have been resolved – criminal barristers in England and Wales and London bus drivers have accepted improved offers, for instance – and RMT rail strikes suspended for now, many more unions are still planning new strikes next month.
Here is a list of all the walkouts currently scheduled for April and May so far:
Saturday 15 April
Passport Office strike by PCS members continues.
Sunday 16 April
Passport Office strike by PCS members continues.
Monday 17 April
Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) driving examiners represented by PCS striking in northeastern England and Scotland.
Passport Office strike by PCS members continues.
Tuesday 18 April
DVSA driving examiners continue to strike in northeastern England and Scotland.
Passport Office strike by PCS members continues.
Thursday 20 April
DVSA driving examiners strike in northwestern England and Yorkshire and the Humber.
Passport Office strike by PCS members continues.
Friday 21 April
DVSA driving examiners continue to strike in northwestern England and Yorkshire and the Humber.
Passport Office strike by PCS members continues.
Monday 24 April
DVSA driving examiners strike in eastern England, the East and West Midlands and parts of London.
Passport Office strike by PCS members continues.
Tuesday 25 April
DVSA driving examiners continue to strike in eastern England, the East and West Midlands and parts of London.
Passport Office strike by PCS members continues.
Thursday 27 April
Teachers from NEU walk out on strike.
DVSA driving examiners strike in southern England, Wales and London.
Passport Office strike by PCS members continues.
Friday 28 April
130,000 civil and public service workers belonging to the PCS union, including Border Force agents, on strike.
DVSA driving examiners continue to strike in southern England, Wales and London.
Saturday 29 April
Passport Office strike by PCS members continues.
Sunday 30 April
Passport Office strike by PCS members continues.
Monday May 1
More than 1,000 HM Passport Office workers belonging to the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) in England, Scotland and Wales will continue a five-week strike which began in April in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions.
Tuesday May 2
Teachers belonging to the National Education Union (NEU) will go on strike
Passport Office strike by PCS members continues.
Wednesday May 3
Passport Office strike by PCS members continues.
Thursday May 4
Passport Office strike by PCS members continues.
Friday May 5
BBC Regional Services staff belonging to the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) are set to walk out during the May local elections.
Passport Office strike by PCS members continues.
