20 June 2003
Education employers are to push for the abolition of the School Teachers' Review Body in an attempt to wrest back control over pay negotiations from Whitehall.
The chair of the National Employers' Organisation for School Teachers told Public Finance this would tackle the problem of education authorities being forced to implement pay deals that are not fully funded by central government.
Graham Lane said the STRB, which recommends a settlement after weighing up considerations from employers and unions, was 'not satisfactory'.
'Under the current system it puts forward recommendations to the government, which they accept but then don't fund,' he said.
According to employers, the recent schools funding crisis was mainly caused by the annual pay rise and performance-related pay. The situation will become more pressing from September when the workload agreement, under which new classroom assistants will take over administrative duties from teachers, is implemented. They will be covered by the local government pay agreement, which is struck by direct collective bargaining.
Lane warned that once the agreement 'has bedded down', LEAs would want to 'revisit' teachers' pay agreements.
Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, told PF he backed the employers' call to scrap the STRB. 'We have always agreed that negotiation is far better than imposition,' he said. 'With imposition you can't say no to those things that damage the profession – performance-related pay is a graphic example.'
PFjun2003
