The general secretaries of school leaders’ union NAHT, the
Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), Community and
the National Education Union (NEU) have today issued a joint
statement after their unions wrote to the School Teachers’ Review
Body (STRB) to express their very serious frustration and
disquiet after the Department for Education confirmed it would
miss today’s deadline for submitting its evidence on this year’s
pay award.
They said: “When our industrial dispute with the government was
resolved last summer gave us an undertaking that
she would do everything possible to deliver a timely pay
settlement this year.
“This pledge has fallen at its first two hurdles. First an
extremely late remit letter, sent to the STRB just days before
Christmas, and now another delay. It is simply unacceptable that
the Department for Education has again apparently missed the
deadline for submitting its evidence to the STRB and delayed the
process, something which has happened frequently in recent years.
“We have written to the STRB to express our disquiet in the
strongest possible terms. At best, it shows a complete and utter
disregard for the dedicated professionals working in our schools
who have faced a decade of real-terms pay cuts.
“This makes it even more important that the government comes up
with a fair proposal on pay, which takes seriously the demands of
working in schools and the severe recruitment and retention
crisis, addresses the pay cuts against inflation, and ensures our
members do not face any delay in receiving this year’s award.”
Signed
Geoff Barton, general secretary at the Association of School and
College Leaders (ASCL)
Roy Rickhuss, Community general secretary
Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT
Daniel Kebede, general secretary at the National Education Union
(NEU)
