Teacher strike averted as unions accept revised 5.5% pay offer

A potential strike by Northern Ireland's teachers has been averted after unions accepted a revised pay offer of 5.5% for 2024/25.

Teachers had previously rejected two possible pay deals, but unions have now accepted the latest offer.

The Northern Ireland Teachers' Council (NITC), which represents the five teaching unions, said they had agreed to accept the deal from management.

The NITC said "an intervention" by Education Minister Paul Givan on teachers' workloads had been crucial.

The unions said the latest offer included an independent review to cover all aspects of workload.

Concerns over their increasing workloads had led to many teachers rejecting the previous pay offers.

The unions have told their members that the review into workload had been agreed to by the education minister and would be completed by November.

Aside from averting widespread strike action, the deal will also lead to action short of strike in schools coming to an end.

The 5.5% pay rise for teachers will be backdated to 1 September 2024.

It is expected to cost Stormont just under £50m in 2024/25 and around £83m in future years.

It will see a relatively new pay rise for teachers from £30,000 to £31,650 a year, while teachers higher up the pay scale will receive rises of about £2,000 to £2,500 a year.

Members of the NAHT, UTU and NEU unions had accepted the previous offer. but members of the INTO and NASUWT unions had rejected it.

But some teachers who got in touch with BBC News NI were critical of their unions.

Some teachers in the INTO union, who wished to remain anonymous, questioned why they had not been asked to vote on the latest offer.

"We voted for the second time last week and turned down their regurgitated offer, but the minister came back this week with a few more empty promises," one said.

"We as a union do not believe he will stand by any of it and would like a vote."

But in a statement the INTO's northern secretary Mark McTaggart called the 5.5% offer "a further step in the right direction toward ensuring that teachers pay truly reflects the value of teachers and school leaders to our society".

"The independent review of teachers' workload is the best vehicle to address the issues around teacher workload to move to a position where teachers will have an acceptable work/life balance," he said.

UTU general secretary Jacquie White called the deal "a significant first step in the process of delivering tangible change for the teaching profession".

The NASUWT's national official Justin McCamphill said: "The minister's been quite clear this review is going to look at all aspects of teacher workload.

"We want that independent review to look at all the issues around SEN, the pastoral impact that's on teachers, the withdrawal of health support to schools, the excessive assessments – there's so much that that independent review could look at."

The president of the NAHT, Jackie Bartley, told Radio Ulster's Evening Extra that school leaders would focus on holding the department to the commitments that the independent review brings.

"I would hope early next week that the minister will have appointed those people who will be responsible for hearing the voices of school leaders and our teachers in the classroom," she said.

"It is making sure that we see systemic change, because the minister stated today he wants to see teachers have the space and time to focus on what matters the most.

"At the core of that is learning and teaching and our children and young people."

The regional secretary of the NEU Pauline Buchanan said the unions were committed "to a comprehensive examination of workload, aiming to transform the conditions of school leadership and the wider teaching profession."

The education minister said that the pay increase would take effect for most teachers in May.

"Pay is a significant issue, we've identified the funding with a huge amount of work to carry that process out and it shows the value that I place on our teaching profession," he said.

Of the independent review, he said: "I'll be setting up a commission who will have an oversight and monitoring role in terms of the 26 areas of workload that have been identified.

"That will report to me, that helps by way of accountability in terms of the agreement that we have reached.

"But I've also said it should look at all areas around workload, because when I'm in and out of schools – and I've been in now upwards of 200 schools – I hear from teachers and principals the pressure that they are under."