National pay strikes moved closer today as members of the two biggest teaching unions voted to step up threats to walk-out over salaries.

Delegates from the NUT section of the new National Education Union overwhelmingly backed a call for a ballot on national strike action over teachers’ pay, if the union’s demands are not met. 

Meanwhile the NASUWT annual conference in Birmingham, voted unanimously in favour of considering the use of rolling industrial action if the government fails to ensure a better pay deal for workers. Kirstie Paton of Greenwich told the NUT conference in Brighton that it should learn lessons from the current university lecturers’ strike.

“We have got to do it,” she said. “We have got to have a national strike over pay. We have got to do it.

“Let’s look at how they have done it. They first thing is, one-day strikes do not work. It’s over. We are not into protesting anymore; we are into fighting for our lives and our livelihoods.”

The NUT motion, which was met with cheers when passed, will now be considered by a joint committee of the NEU in May, which will decide whether to go ahead with a ballot. The union is calling for the government to give teachers an immediate 5 per cent rise, fully funded by the Treasury.

The NASUWT’s motion condemned the public sector pay gap as “deplorable” and will lead to the union’s executive deciding whether to ballot members on rolling strike action.

Martin Hudson, from Newcastle upon Tyne, told the conference he wanted to have enough money to buy his work clothes from somewhere other than a discount store. “We’ve had enough,” he said.  “We need to effectively challenge seven years of derisory pay awards.”

Lincoln-based teacher Daniel Carvalho, who arrived in the UK in 2015, suggested that NASUWT members used the recruitment crisis to individually negotiate better pay.  “I got a pay rise - not because I’m an outstanding teacher, I’m far from that,” he said. “Trust me, I can show you my lesson observations.

“I told my line manager once: ‘I know I’m not indispensable - but I can guarantee I get a job faster than you can find another teacher’. If we do not demand a pay rise now, forget about it.”

A survey by the NASUWT has found that 72 per cent of teachers think potential recruits are being putting off a career in the profession teaching because of pay levels, with more than four out of five (82 per cent) thinking teacher pay is not competitive with other professions.

Nearly a third (32 per cent) of teachers have had to increase their use of credit in the last year as a result of the years of cuts to their salaries, the survey found.

In addition, 33 per cent have had to delay essential household repairs and nearly one in ten (8 per cent) have had to take a second job on top of their teaching responsibilities.

NUT delegates also supported a call for the removal of a clause in the Schools Teachers Pay and Conditions Document that says teachers must work “such reasonable hours as needed” to discharge their professional duties.

In its place, the conference called for a “clear limit on hours teachers can be expected to work in line with existing union policy”.

A Department for Education statement read: “The average teacher’s salary stands at £37,400 outside of London, rising to £41,900 in the capital.

“We have already given schools freedom over staff pay and have asked the independent School Teachers’ Review Body to take account of the government’s flexible approach to public sector pay as they develop their recommendation.

“We want to continue to attract and keep the best and brightest people in our schools. That’s why the education secretary recently announced a strategy to drive recruitment and boost retention of teachers, working with the unions and professional bodies, and pledged to strip away workload that doesn’t add value in the classroom.”