TEACHERS are set to receive thousands of pounds in backdated pay after unions accepted an offer to end a long-running dispute.
The settlement, which will cost the Department of Education £67m, ends a row over salaries and workload that has led to strikes and boycotts of school inspections.
Pay backdated to September 2017 will now be released, after agreement on a 2.25 per cent rise for 2017-18 and further two per cent for the following year.
Teachers will receive a lump sum this summer, with experienced staff in line to receive several thousand pounds.
The deal was rubber-stamped by all five teaching unions represented in the north.
Gerry Murphy of the Northern Ireland Teachers council said it would "now begin the process of submitting a pay claim for 2019-20 and 2020-21, which addressed the losses against inflation and which will be benchmarked against neighbouring jurisdictions".
“This agreement delivers contractual protections to teachers from excessive workload," he added.
"The NITC will be working with the employers to ensure that the new working arrangements are in place in all schools from September."
Ulster Teachers’ Union general secretary Jacquie White said it "breaks the public sector pay cap and finally gives our members pay parity with their colleagues elsewhere in the UK for that period".
"The deal has been hard-fought, long-awaited, and is well-deserved but it was always about more than pay and now this deal will also - from September - protect teachers against crippling workloads," she said.