NEU members vote to accept 6.5% teacher pay deal

Members of the National Education Union (NEU) – the country’s largest education union – have voted to accept the government’s teacher pay deal.

In a consultation with teacher members, 86 per cent voted in favour of accepting a 6.5 per cent rise for all teachers and leaders, on a turnout of 60 per cent.

It marks a major step towards ending strikes that disrupted schools during the spring and summer terms.

Leaders’ union ASCL ended its own strike ballot after its own members voted to back the deal earlier this month.

The NAHT and NASUWT unions also accepted the pay deal. But NASUWT said planned industrial action will still go ahead.

Education secretary Gillian Keegan tweeted that the NEU pay deal vote was “good news for teachers, good news for parents and most of all, good news for students”.

The NEU announced today it had secured a fresh mandate for strikes in the autumn term, following a formal re-ballot of members that was called before the deal was offered.

The ballot was won by 95 per cent, with a turnout of 53 per cent beating legal requirements for industrial action.

However the outcome of its consultation meant further strikes “will not now go ahead in the autumn term”, the union said.

Keegan added: “The deal brings an end to the disruption faced by parents and young people and means we can focus on what matters most – giving our children a world class education.

“That means tackling persistent absence and getting every child through the school gates every day, a relentless focus on closing the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers, and continued action to help young people make up for time lost during the pandemic.”

Joint general secretaries Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney said their union’s members “should be proud they have … secured extra funding for schools.

“The Government should be in no doubt that we will hold its feet to the fire on delivering for teachers and support staff on workload and funding and continue to represent the profession in future STRB consultations.

“It remains the view of the NEU that school and college funding is far from adequate. It remains a commitment of the NEU to campaign for further increases in teacher pay… Our campaign for a better-funded education system will not go away.”