By Richard Johnstone | 7 February 2014
The National Union of Teachers has announced it will hold a national strike in England and Wales on March 26, in an escalation of its dispute with Education Secretary Michael Gove.
The union has been in dispute with the Department for Education since September 2012 over the introduction of performance-related pay for teachers and the impact of public sector pension reforms.
Announcing the action, NUT general secretary Christine Blower said Gove had persistently refused to address the union’s concerns over the changes.
‘As a result, thousands of good, experienced teachers are leaving or considering leaving the job and a teacher shortage crisis is looming with two in five teachers leaving the profession in their first five years,’ she added.
‘The NUT and National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers met with government officials in October – now over 17 weeks ago. Reassurances were given that Michael Gove would talk about a wide range of matters on implementation of pay and pensions and the direction of travel and implementation on conditions. Subsequently, the education secretary has put obstacle after obstacle in the way of talks, showing no serious attempt to resolve – or even to discuss – the matters in dispute.’
However, she highlighted that the union had already cancelled strikes that were planned for both last November and this month, and was willing to meet Gove at any time to seek to resolve the dispute.
‘The strike action can of course be called off,’ Blower added. ‘For this to happen, the secretary of state needs to give reassurances that he will not go ahead with any changes which worsen teachers’ working conditions. Further, he needs to commit to serious and substantive talks on the other elements of the dispute, including on pay and pensions.’
The NASUWT also announced today its national executive would consider plans for the next phase of its industrial action at a meeting on February 14.
Responding to the strike announcement, a DfE spokeswoman said: 'Parents will struggle to understand why the NUT is pressing ahead with strikes over the government's measures to let heads pay good teachers more. They called for talks to avoid industrial action, we agreed to their request, and those talks will begin shortly.
'Despite this constructive engagement with their concerns, the NUT is nevertheless taking strike action that will disrupt parents' lives, hold back children's education and damage the reputation of the profession.'
