Working together to win on pay
Nicky Morgan's announcement in July on teachers' pay from this month was quickly followed by George Osborne's budget announcement that the 1% public sector pay limit would apply for a further four years. The NUT will support members who are denied the pay rise, including through sustained strike action if needed. Contact the NUT locally if your school doesn't confirm your September pay rise this term.
The joint union advice on school teachers' pay scales for 2015-16, which NUT has published with NAHT, ATL, Voice and UCAC, reaffirms the fixed pay scales, including the 6 point Main Scale and 3 point Upper Scale. It sets out the pay scale points that all schools should adopt to maintain that structure and give all teachers the promised pay rise. The advice is being sent by post to local authorities and to academy chains. Local NUT officers will be discussing its adoption by the LA this month.
This joint advice follows the Secretary of State's confirmation in July that she would accept the STRB recommendations on pay which are:
• a 1% increase in the minimum of all pay ranges;
• a 1% increase in the maximum of the Upper pay range, Unqualified pay range and Leading Practitioner pay range;
• a 2% increase in the maximum of the Main pay range; and
• a freeze in the maximum of the overall Leadership pay range and the eight school group head teacher ranges.
The joint advice advocates retention of the previous structure of pay scale points, with a 1% increase in all pay scale points but a 2% increase in M6. It also contains advice on how the freeze in certain leadership points should be applied.
The LGA and ASCL have not signed the joint advice, largely on the basis that they had no mandate to call for a 2% increase in M6, but they have confirmed that they do not see any of the advice in the circular as being inaccurate. The NASUWT has not signed the joint advice but has instead issued its own advice calling for a similar increase of 1% in all points but 2% in M6.
The draft 2015 STPCD has now been published for consultation. The DfE has decided against making any substantial changes to the 2014 STPCD so that the 2015 draft does not, for example, contain any specific requirement to link the cost of living increase to performance as the STRB suggested. The most significant addition is advice that the application of the 2015 pay increase is, as the joint advice notes, for schools to determine according to their own pay policy.