Commitment to defending teachers and pupils reaffirmed
The NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union in the UK, will today reaffirm its strategy to continue to defend the interests of pupils, schools and the teaching profession from the assault by the Government and administrations across the UK on our public education service.
Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said:
“The attacks on our public education service have resulted in one of the most serious teacher recruitment and retention crisis since 1945.
“A key contributory factor to the crisis is the competiveness of teachers’ pay and rewards compared with pay of graduates in other occupations.
“The NASUWT has a current trade dispute with all nations and administrations across the UK. All nations and administrations have applied the Westminster Government’s pay restraint and in England and Wales this has been compounded by schools setting increasingly higher barriers to pay progression.
“The NASUWT is committed to continuing to secure the entitlement for all children and young people to be taught by qualified, highly skilled professionals who are recognised and rewarded through a fair and transparent pay system that recruits and retains teachers.
“The NASUWT’s industrial action strategy is now firmly embedded in schools and NASUWT will escalate action as appropriate to combat actions by any employers which seek to worsen teachers’ pay and conditions.”
Notes to editors
The NASUWT’s Annual Conference is being held at the ICC in Birmingham from 25-28 March.
The full text of the motion is attached.
The NASUWT has been engaged in a continuous programme of industrial action since November 30 2011 over attacks to teachers’ pay, pensions and working conditions, excessive workload and job loss.
The industrial action strategy has included:
- action short of strike action instructions to protect and defend members on a daily basis;
- strike action, including in individual schools and clusters of schools to oppose the imposition of punitive pay and performance management policies.
Lena Davies
Press & Media Officer
NASUWT
0121 457 6250/07867 392746
lena.davies@mail.nasuwt.org.uk
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