The largest education union in the country will launch a formal ballot on strike action if the Government’s final pay offer for teachers “remains unacceptable”.
Delegates at the annual conference of the National Education Union (NEU) have voted for districts, branches and school groups to “immediately prepare” for a formal industrial action ballot over the pay and funding offer for 2025/26.
A motion, passed at the union’s conference in Harrogate in North Yorkshire, said the Government’s recommended 2.8% pay rise for September was “inadequate and unfunded” and it would prevent the Government achieving its target of recruiting 6,500 more teachers.
The debate came after a majority of NEU teacher members in England who took part in a preliminary ballot said they would be willing to take strike action to secure a fully funded, significantly higher pay award.
In its evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) in December, the Department for Education (DfE) said a 2.8% pay rise for teachers in 2025/26 would be “appropriate” and would “maintain the competitiveness” of teachers’ pay despite the “challenging financial backdrop” the Government is facing.
The Government has yet to publish the recommendations of the teachers’ pay review body, or its decision on whether to accept them.
An urgent motion, carried by conference delegates on Tuesday, called for a formal industrial action ballot to be launched if the final outcome of the STRB process “remains unacceptable” – or if the Government does not announce real-terms funding increases in the spending review in June.
The motion, which was debated in private, called on the union’s executive to encourage district, branches and school groups to immediately lobby the Government to publish the STRB report and “prepare for a formal ballot”.
The NEU held an indicative ballot of its members, on the Government’s recommendation of a 2.8% pay award for teachers in England for 2025/26.
Overall, 93.7% of NEU teacher members in state schools in England who responded to the preliminary electronic ballot voted to reject the Government’s recommendation of a 2.8% pay rise – and 83.4% said they would be willing to take action to secure an increased pay award.
But only 47.2% of those eligible to vote took part in the indicative ballot – which is below the legal threshold of 50% turnout.
Teachers in England received a fully funded 5.5% pay rise in September last year.
NEU members staged eight days of strike action in state schools in England in 2023 in a long-running pay dispute.
In July 2023, the Government agreed to implement the STRB’s recommendation of a 6.5% increase for teachers in England, and co-ordinated strike action by four unions was called off.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, said: “Members of the National Education Union have put the Government on notice.
“The Government’s unfunded and inadequate 2.8% proposed increase would mean another pay cut against inflation and would see teacher pay fall further behind pay in other professions.
“The result would be an intensification of the already critical recruitment and retention problems, so the pay cut would affect children and families too.”
He added: “The Government must turn the page on failed austerity and instead invest properly in education.
“It must publish the STRB report immediately and commit to the pay correction needed to reverse the huge pay cuts against inflation since 2010.
“NEU members will continue to fight for the pay levels needed to properly value, recruit and retain the teachers our education service needs.
“The NEU will closely monitor developments and will consider the next steps in our campaign to fund fair pay.”
Last week, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “With school staff, parents and young people working so hard to turn the tide on school attendance, any move towards industrial action by teaching unions would be indefensible.
“Following a 5.5% pay award in a hugely challenging fiscal context, I would urge NEU to put children first.”
