National Education Union accepts government’s 5.5% pay rise offer for teachers in England

The largest education union in the UK has voted to accept the government’s 5.5% pay rise for teachers in England.

In a snap poll, 95% of National Education Union (NEU) members who responded accepted the 2024/25 offer.

Around 300,000 state school teachers were asked to vote. The turnout was 41%.

Schools will receive £1.2bn of additional funding in the 2024/25 financial year to help cover the costs as part of the deal, according to the NEU.

“Our members should be proud of what they have achieved through a hard-fought campaign,” the union’s general secretary Daniel Kebede said.

However, he also warned: “The government should be in no doubt that we see it as just a first step in the major pay correction needed.

“Teacher pay in England was cut by around a quarter in real terms under the Conservatives and is significantly lower than it is in Scotland. This is unsustainable.

“Without a major pay correction to restore the competitiveness of teacher pay, the desire to tackle the recruitment and retention crisis promised by today’s government remit letter to the School Teachers’ Review Body will come up short.”

Several different groups from the public sector have been involved in industrial action over pay in recent years, with NEU members staging eight days of strikes in England in 2023.

There are more than 500,000 teachers in the UK.

Sir Keir Starmer’s government could need up to £10bn to cover such a pay increase if all public sector workers were given the 5.5% rise, an economist has previously warned.

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Last week, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), the nursing union, voted to reject the 5.5% offer.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy recently told Sky News Labour had offered public sector workers “a real-terms pay rise for the first time in a long time”.

She said they deserved it and it was good for the economy, because “every pound you put into the pockets of working people goes back onto our high streets and helps local economies to thrive”.

However, the Tories have criticised the government for making “short-term decisions” which they warn have “long-term consequences”.

Former Conservative chancellor Jeremy Hunt said earlier this summer that showing “restraint” on public sector pay would mean tax rises could be avoided.

The same pay offer has not been made to teachers at sixth form colleges – except for those at sites which are part of the academy system.

A separate NEU ballot calling on the government to provide equivalent funding to those affected closes on 7 November.