School leaders in Wales vote to reject pay offer

NAHT Cymru ballot result comes a day after teacher-members of the NEU called off their strike action over pay by voting to accept latest offer from Welsh government
24th March 2023, 4:59pm

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School leaders in Wales vote to reject pay offer

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Two thumbs down – school leaders in Wales vote to reject pay offer

School leaders in Wales have rejected an offer from the Welsh government in their dispute over pay, workload and funding.

Some 54.5 per cent of NAHT Cymru members taking part voted to reject the offer and 45.5 per cent to accept it, after a 10-day online ballot that closed at noon today.

Yesterday, teachers in the NEU Cymru union called off their strike action over pay, after voting to accept the latest pay offer from the Welsh government.

NAHT Cymru said today that after “extensive talks with members across the nation, it was clear that funding arrangements remained a major concern for school leaders”. The turnout for the ballot was 54.6 per cent.

The union has now written to the Welsh government and employers to inform them of the outcome and is calling for talks to resume.

In the meantime, members will continue to take indefinite action short of a strike following their earlier ballot on industrial action.

NAHT Cymru director Laura Doel said: “Despite assurances from the Welsh government and the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) that pay awards for the current academic year would be fully funded, that has clearly not been the case according to our members.

“The WLGA has refused to provide us with the evidence to substantiate their claim that all 22 local authorities and the Welsh government are fully funding the pay uplifts for 2022-23, and our members simply will not sit back and allow their school budgets to be decimated to fund this award.

“They have understandably lost all trust and confidence in the employers and hold out little hope that the award for the next academic year will bring with it any further money.”

She added: “At the heart of our dispute has been a desire to protect the delivery of education for children in Wales. This ballot result sends a clear message that our members do not believe they can maintain the level of support pupils deserve when they are being short-changed by some local authorities on the promise of funding.

“The only way our members can afford to meet the costs without the money they need will be to make redundancies. This will have a detrimental impact on education for this and future generations and therefore we are urging the Welsh government to intervene and help save our schools from ruin.”

The ongoing action means that union members who are employed as headteachers, deputy headteachers, assistant headteachers and middle leaders will:

  • Restrict availability to receive or respond to calls and emails before 9am or after 3pm.
  • Abstain from attending meetings after 5pm.
  • Refuse to facilitate unsolicited school visits or take part in non-statutory consultations, surveys, projects, meetings, government, local authority or Consortia webinars or data requests.
  • Abstain from involvement in any staff appraisal or redundancy process.
  • Abstain from facilitating or arranging cover for those taking part in any industrial action.
  • Refuse to provide information regarding staff participation in industrial action.
  • Refuse to engage with Estyn, which inspects education and training providers in Wales, beyond statutory requirements.

The government’s offer included an additional payment of 3 per cent for this academic year (2022-23), made up of a 1.5 per cent consolidated award and a further 1.5 per cent unconsolidated lump sum. The offer also included a further pay rise of 5 per cent from September 2023, plus an agreement on workload.

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