NASUWT: Unlimited pay discretion is incompatible with national pay framework
Commenting on the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement and the publication of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) report on local and regional pay, Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union, said:
“The war on teachers waged by the Coalition Government continues.
“The value of a national pay framework has been recognised by other pay review bodies but the STRB appears to be seriously out of step.
“Teachers may be forgiven for drawing the conclusion that the independent STRB has been leant on.
“The recent replacement of three members of the Review Body by the Secretary of State may not be unconnected.
“If implemented, the STRB’s recommendations would leave behind the wreckage of a national pay framework which will be incapable of delivering consistent, fair and transparent approaches to pay.
“These proposals place virtually unlimited discretion on teachers’ pay in the hands of headteachers at a time when unfairness and discrimination are already rife.
“The dismantling of the national pay framework is going to be bad for children’s education and bad for the teaching profession.
“Children and young people should have an entitlement to be taught by those who are recognised and rewarded as highly skilled professionals; these proposals will not secure this.
“We will be studying this report in detail, but the key proposals already give us serious cause for concern.
“The NASUWT and the NUT, representing 9 out of 10 teachers, will be meeting in the next few days to consider our response to this very serious development which is at the heart of our trade dispute with the Secretary of State.
“However, the Chancellor has finally been forced to concede what everyone else knew all along, that regional and local pay was a bad idea.
“Pay review bodies have wasted their time and taxpayers’ money pursuing the Chancellor’s flawed and ideological prejudices.”
ENDS
Lena Davies
Press and Media Officer
Campaigns and Communications Team
NASUWT
0121 457 6250 / 07867 392 746
lena.davies@mail.nasuwt.org.uk
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