Headteachers in strike ballot as UK industrial unrest spreads

Headteachers in England and Wales are threatening to take strike action over pay and funding for the first time ever in the new year as a wave of industrial unrest spreads across the UK’s public sector.

NAHT, the school leaders’ union, on Tuesday said it would launch a formal vote on industrial action after a survey of its members showed a majority wanted to be balloted.

Its announcement at the TUC Congress, the annual gathering of the UK’s trade union movement, means the three biggest teaching unions are moving towards walkouts in protest at a below-inflation pay deal and funding squeeze.

The National Education Union also said on Tuesday it would begin balloting about 300,000 teachers and support staff on October 28, with nationwide strike action in England and Wales possible from February. NASUWT, which also represents teachers, will ballot members between October 27 and January 9.

Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, said “relentlessly reasonable” school leaders who had dealt with a decade of real-term pay cuts were now ready to strike because they could no longer offer the salaries needed to recruit subject specialists or other staff.

“This is about the quality of education . . . They can’t get the right people in front of children,” said Whiteman. He added that the union’s aim was not to shut down schools, with options for industrial action ranging from a stoppage of some administrative work to a full walkout.

The NAHT’s membership of roughly 34,500 includes a majority of primary school heads.

Kevin Courtney, joint NEU general secretary, said it would be the first time the main teaching unions had held ballots simultaneously. He said this was a significant development, because teachers would “feel easier” about backing action if they knew school heads shared their concerns.

The Association of School and College Leaders — a smaller union representing headteachers — is consulting on whether to ballot members, who are “traditionally extremely reluctant to consider any form of industrial action”, according to Geoff Barton, the union’s leader.

The push increases the risks of a damaging confrontation between the government and public sector workers, as new chancellor Jeremy Hunt presses Whitehall departments to find new savings in budgets already under intense strain.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady told Congress that “the new face at No11” had not lifted the threat of further cuts to public sector pay and working age benefits, at a time when UK workers were on course to suffer two decades of stagnant living standards.

“It’s time for change. We need a general election now,” she said, adding: “People ask me: will the TUC co-ordinate strike action this winter? And I say: We already are.”

Industrial action is already looming in the health sector where unions representing 750,000 NHS workers are set to hold ballots that could lead to the biggest nationwide strike for four decades. Walkouts are already disrupting rail services, major ports and communications.

The RMT rail union on Tuesday announced new dates for strike action on November 3, 5 and 7 in its long-running dispute with Network Rail, accusing the infrastructure operator of “undermining delicate negotiations” by writing directly to staff with an offer the union had rejected.

Meanwhile, postal workers at Royal Mail are due to hold a series of one-day strikes across October and November, which has complicated teaching unions’ plans, because ballots must take place by post.

Courtney said most schools already faced real terms spending cuts and that average pay for teachers was rising by roughly 5 per cent this year, compared with inflation at 9.9 per cent.