A teachers’ union in England is to elect members for strike action after 87% of its members voted to reject the government’s salary offer.
NASUWT, which represents 280,000 teachers in the UK, said the offer did not address its concerns about pay and working conditions.
Four unions have since turned down the offer – including the National Education Union, which is planning further strikes.
The government said further strike action was “extremely disappointing”.
Most state school teachers in England had a 5% pay rise in 2022.
They were offered a 4.3% increase next year and a one-off payment of £1,000 this year. Starting salaries would also rise to £30,000 from September.
The government said it believed schools could afford to fund most of the pay rise from their budgets and that extra money would have been set aside to make up for the rest.
But unions have lobbied for a fully-funded pay rise, arguing that taking the money out of school budgets could mean they have to make cuts elsewhere.
The government’s salary offer was also rejected by the National Education Union (NEU), the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL).
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At the NASUWT annual conference in Glasgow on Saturday, Dr. Patrick Roach, the union’s general secretary, urged Education Secretary Gillian Keegan to return to wage negotiations.
“The government’s salary offer did not come close to addressing concerns about teachers’ pay and working conditions, and this was rightly rejected by our members,” he said.
“Gillian Keegan has said she is willing to negotiate and listen to the profession. She now has to prove that she means what she says by getting back to the negotiating table to find a solution to our dispute.”
He said the government had a responsibility to provide a “fully funded salary offer that is acceptable to the profession”.
The union did not disclose turnout in the consultative vote but said 77% of members would be willing to vote for a strike.
Members of the National Education Union of England – the UK’s largest education union – will strike on Thursday 27 April and Tuesday 2 May.
Five teachers’ unions will go on strike in Northern Ireland on Wednesday 26 April.
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