Your uncritical repetition of the Government’s claim that our pay deal delivered “2.5 per cent in April 2005, topped up to 3.25 in September” is, at the very least, naive (“Rebellion simmers over pay”, TES, June 24).
The “extra” 0.75 per cent rise is to cover the annual pay increase date being delayed from April 1 to September 1. Over five months 0.75 per cent is equivalent to only 1.8 per cent per annum.
If you include the two 2.5 per cent years, each pound;100 being paid on April 30, 2003 will have become pound;105.85 on September 30, 2005. That is an increase of 2.38 per cent or less than 2.4 per cent for the many experienced teachers we want to keep and who are not in either the short CPS scale or on the even shorter and slower UPS scale.
For those on frozen management points, the increase is less than 2.38 per cent: at best 2.25 per cent for those with only one management point. For those losing an allowance which is being phased out, such as recruitment and retention allowance, one of those years will see a real pay cut of between 1 and 4 per cent, thus penalising loyalty in difficult inner-city jobs.
This does not sound like “topping up” to me; more like cutting down. The TES, of all papers, should print the grim reality on pay and not the Government’s gloss.
Michael McGowan
Branch secretary
Enfield Association of Teachers and Lecturers
605 Lordship Lane
Wood Green
London N22
