UK teachers to start industrial action over pay

Members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) are to start an industrial action short of a strike next month and continue it until their long-running dispute over jobs, pay and pensions with the UK government is resolved.

The NUT industrial action, which involves teachers across England and Wales, will be launched on October 3, a week later than planned on September 26, in order to avoid a legal challenge to the wording of notices sent to relevant employers.

The leading union along with the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), which represent nine out of 10 teachers in England and Wales, were expected to start coordinated action around the end of September, to protest against the British government’s policies on pay, pensions, workload and conditions of service and job loss.

While the NUT announced a week’s delay, the NASUWT confirmed that its campaign of action will take place as previously arranged from Wednesday.

“Legal advice suggested that the notices were in fact sound. However, the NUT has taken the decision that rather than get embroiled in a pointless legal row which could potentially detract from the real issues we would simply reissue the notices,” said Christine Blower, general secretary of the NUT.

Teachers are expected to boycott meetings and covering for absent staff and also refuse to fill in forms or respond to work-related emails, aiming to highlight Tory-led government’s cuts to education spending in a manner claimed to be pupil, parent and public-friendly.