'Culture of paying teachers what you can get away with must end' says the NASUWT
Teachers at the Annual Conference of the NASUWT, the largest teachers union in the UK, have condemned the Coalition Governments attacks on the pay of public sector workers, which has seen teachers pay cut by almost 15%.
The Coalition Government plans to end the annual pay award for teachers and in addition has introduced extensive pay flexibilities for employers which are seeing teachers across England and Wales being denied pay progression.
62% of teachers who responded to the NASUWT’s Big Question survey and were eligible for pay progression said they had not received it this year and less than half (43%) say they are paid for the full range of responsibilities they undertake.
Over three quarters (78%) of teachers who responded to the survey do not think teaching is competitive with other professions in terms of pay and over two thirds (67%) believe that people are being put off a career in teaching because of the pay.
Income Data Services report that the starting salary for teachers is now 20% below that of other graduate professions and the gap widens the longer teachers remain in the job.
Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said:
“The cumulative effect of over four years of pay cuts and pay freezes has left teachers thousands of pounds worse off.
“The extensive flexibility on pay given to employers by this Coalition is resulting in widespread discrimination and unfairness.
“Yet while teachers’ pay has dramatically decreased, the number of headteachers being paid six figure salaries is increasing year on year, according to the Department for Education’s own figures.
“There is a growing culture in too many schools of seeking to pay teachers on the basis of what you can get away with, rather than rewarding them for their skills and expertise.
“Without a fair and transparent national pay system it is not only teachers who are adversely affected, children and young people lose out as highly skilled professionals leave the profession and are deterred from entering it.”
