Wales school strikes: One-off payment offered to teachers

A one-off payment was offered to teachers and school leaders at a meeting with the Welsh Government’s Education Secretary on Thursday morning.

Sources told BBC Wales the offer is similar to the one made to health workers last week.

Senior officials in two unions said it didn’t go far enough.

The talks with Jeremy Miles came ahead of four separate days of planned strikes by members of the National Education Union (NEU).

A representative of NEU, which supported strike action earlier this week, claimed a “large number” of schools in Wales will have to close.

Earlier this week, Jeremy Miles said he was “unsure” that would happen.

Not all teachers are planning a strike — but a NASUWT official said its members would not take over the work of striking teachers.

Both the education and health unions are seeking wage increases to match rising prices.

Representatives held an online meeting with Jeremy Miles from the Welsh Government and the Welsh Local Government Association on Thursday morning.

Last week Mark Drakeford offered healthcare unions a one-off payment to end the NHS strikes.

It was not enough to stop the RCN from calling further strikes while strikes in the ambulance service continued.

David Evans, Welsh Secretary of the NEU union, confirmed that unions had been offered a “single non-consolidated payment”.

But said it “doesn’t come close to meeting our demands and those of the other unions”.

He said there was also a discussion about easing the burden on teachers.

Unions have been pushing for an urgent review of the latest report from the independent Welsh Pay Inspectorate, which in practice would mean reconsidering next year’s pay rise, currently set at 3.5%.

The discussions were “a start, but nothing has been resolved,” Mr Evans added.

NAHT school leaders have also supported strike action, but the union is expected to take non-strike action first.

Laura Doel, director of school principals’ union NAHT Cymru, said calling off the industrial action at her union was not enough.

Ms Doel said her union had entered into “meaningful negotiations” with the Welsh Government and described the talks as “productive”.

She said there were also discussions about workload, recruitment and retention, and funding.

Ms Doel confirmed a one-off payment was being discussed but declined to give details of the offer.

As of Thursday, no concrete figures were publicly available about what the payment might mean. A source said there was debate over whether the money would be split equally or weighted.

There was also no public confirmation of what was being offered to healthcare unions, although the BBC was previously told the Welsh Government had considered paying around £1,000 per NHS worker.

A pot of money was discussed in talks with Health Secretary Eluned Morgan last week.

Education and Welsh Language Minister Jeremy Miles said the meeting was “constructive”.

“We have agreed that we will speak again before planned strikes,” he said.

“I would like to reassure the education staff that I am listening to your concerns and remain committed to working with unions and local authorities to find a solution. As a government, we believe that disputes should be settled through negotiation.

“During the meeting, we discussed a one-time cash payment on top of the 2022-23 salary premium and a number of unpaid issues, including a commitment to address workload issues.”

Speaking to the BBC podcast Walescast, NEU’s Mairead Canavan said a one-off payment is not acceptable for the NEU as it “will not improve our salaries”.

She said there will be “a lot of closures”.

NASUWT union members voted overwhelmingly in favor of strike action, but turnout was below the 50% threshold for a lawful strike.

Sion Amlyn, the union’s political officer, said NASUWT would hold a “swift and sudden re-election.”

When asked if NASUWT members would cross the picket lines from NEU on strike days, he replied: “Other union members cross the picket lines, go to work.

“But what is important is that once our members work, they do not take on the workload of the people who are on strike.”

NASUWT’s Neil Butler said the one-time payment offered by the minister was “certainly not enough” but he was encouraged that “the minister came with an offer – he came to negotiate”.

UCAC Secretary-General Ioan Rhys Jones welcomed the minister’s willingness to address workload issues.

“We look forward to continuing the talks,” he added.

UCAC also missed the 50 percent hurdle in its ballot.