Northern Ireland

NASUWT to begin industrial action short of strike in schools from May 9

The NASUWT are to begin industrial action short of strike in schools from May 9
The NASUWT are to begin industrial action short of strike in schools from May 9 The NASUWT are to begin industrial action short of strike in schools from May 9

THE NASUWT teaching union has announced it is to begin industrial action short of strike in schools across Northern Ireland from May 9.

It will affect teachers covering for other staff, overseeing exams, lesson plans, inspections and school meetings.

It comes after NASUWT members voted overwhelmingly in support of industrial action in a dispute over pay, workload and adverse working conditions.

A ballot saw 80 per cent of members vote in favour of strike action and almost all voted for action short of strike.

Teachers previously received a two per cent pay rise for 2019/20 and two per cent again in 2020/21, but teaching unions rejected as "inadequate" a two-year pay offer for the years from 2021 to 2023.

The details of the action being taken by the NASUWT have been sent to school principals across the north, with a range of duties that staff will not carry out from May 9.

These include not co-operating with school inspections or "attend more than one parents' evening" as well as refusing to "undertake invigilation of public examinations".

Teachers are also expected to refuse to collect money from pupils for school activities or cover for some staff absences with extra-curricular activities also set to be affected.

It comes as the NAHT union - which represents many school leaders - warned yesterday that the NASUWT action "will seriously curtail activities and development across our schools".

In an open letter to the permanent secretary at the Department of Education (DE), the union said "a fair pay settlement must be pursued with urgency".

Dr Graham Gault, director of school leaders' union NAHT NI, said it was "unsafe, unreasonable and impossible" to expect school leaders to take on extra work to keep schools unaffected.

In the letter, he said that the action is "a consequence of the unacceptable pay settlement that was offered to teachers and school leaders in February is the industrial action that NASUWT is about to take".

"As the industrial landscape evolves in coming months without any fair pay settlement for our school workforce, the system must not be under the illusion that services will remain unaffected," he said.

"For the last decade, our school leaders have welcomed their children to the new school year knowing that they are receiving a pay cut.

"Similarly, the tools, resources and the support systems required for them to do their jobs have been decimated, despite the truth that expectation, complexity and intensity of their roles have increased immeasurably.

"School leaders can no longer be asked to fill in the gaps of a broken system, frankly, we will not allow it."

He added that "a fair pay settlement must be pursued with urgency".