Thousands of students are staying home as members of a teachers union in Wales strike the Senedd and schools.
The promotion was suspended last month while the National Education Union (NEU) considered an improved package, which it then rejected.
The NEU said the offer was “not good enough” but the Welsh Government insisted it was a “strong” deal.
Ministers offered an additional pay rise of 1.5% on top of the 5% already promised for this year.
They then pledged a further 1.5% as a one-off payment and put forward measures to deal with the teachers’ workload.
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Then NEU officials met and rejected the offer, saying the strikes would take place on March 2nd, 15th and 16th.
It said the offer was unable to address the cost-of-living crisis or the “damage” it had had to pay since 2010.
The Welsh Government responded by saying it was operating within “challenging financial constraints”.
“We believe an offer equivalent to an 8% pay rise, with a consolidated 6.5%, is a strong offer in the context of a shrinking Welsh government budget,” said a spokesman.
“In order for teachers to benefit from an additional retrospective pay rise for 2022-23, an agreement is required by mid-March.”
In the NEU’s first strike on February 1st, around 40% of Welsh’s 1,500 schools were closed and hundreds more opened for just a few years.
Stacey Boucher, a teacher at Ysgol y Deri special needs school in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, said two staff had left for better paying jobs since the last strike a month ago.
“It’s a tough job, but it’s a job that people are happy to come to and with the wages, people just go and it’s really sad,” she said.
Another teacher, Suzie Tyack, joined her on the picket line and said she was not striking for personal reasons, but for better funding for schools and extra money for support staff.
“We didn’t have a supply of support staff and they’re completely underfunded in our system,” she added.
At Ysgol Dyffryn Conwy bilingual school in Llanrwst, Conwy County, doors will only be opened to pupils in Years 7, 12 and 13 – the rest are being asked to stay home due to staff shortages.
Headmaster Owain Gethin Davies said: “It will have an impact on students in Years 10 to 13, who are losing important days preparing for assessments and exams.
“There’s not much time left before the exams, which of course puts pressure on us as a school, and there are concerns among parents.”
With thousands of children being asked to stay home, some parents have had to secure extra childcare so they can go to work.
The Blue Door after-school care center in Cardiff took in more strike-affected children.
Parent Rahela Dinu said the strike has come at a financial cost to her family.
“I’m not happy at all,” she said. “I get paid £50 a day as a cleaner and have to spend £70 to get my daughter here today.”
Another parent, Eleri Thomas, said she supports the teachers: “I used to be a teacher myself, so I totally understand why they do it.
“My son usually has an afternoon session here, but today we switched to the morning session and someone will pick him up later, so it worked out well for us.”
But Paul Jones’ son’s daycare was canceled because of the strike, and he said: “He’s supposed to be without school supplies today anyway, so it’s not too much of a problem for us today.
“Everyone is suffering at the moment. We are all in the same boat and I have a lot of sympathy for teachers, like many other industries at the moment.”
NEW Wales Secretary David Evans told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast its members did not want to go on strike but that “no progress” had been made at a meeting with the Welsh Government on Tuesday.
There have been “positive steps” on the workload issue, he added, but members have not backed down on wage demands.
“We go back to 2010 when austerity kicked in,” he said. “Teachers have since taken a pay cut and support staff have probably lost up to 23% or 24% in pay by our estimate.”
The union has pledged that students “will not be at a loss” if more days of strikes take place.
Members of the National Association of Headteachers are also continuing their action on the eve of a strike, claiming more details are needed on the deal offered by ministers.
It postponed a vote to ask members for their opinion on the revised offer and said it wanted more clarity on school funding and reducing workloads.
The Welsh Government said it had written to unions with a “comprehensive offer on workload”.
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