A ballot overseen by the Jersey Advisory Conciliation Service (JACS) was conducted to ascertain whether teachers accepted the offer made by the States for the year June 2006 to 2007. The offer was made to all public-service employees as an interim offer while pay negotiations continue, but it was rejected by 99.1% of teachers. When the States made the offer they said it was ‘a gesture of goodwill in recognition of the long wait staff have endured’, but the Jersey Teachers’ Panel said they rejected the interim payment and described it as ‘an unorthodox way of carrying out salary negotiations’. In the light of the teachers’ overwhelming rejection of the offer, the Teachers’ Panel is asking Education, Sport and Culture to take part in a conciliation meeting under the auspices of JACS to resolve the dispute. The panel is made up of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, the National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. Members of all three organisations are now being asked what form of industrial action they would prefer to take. Members must inform their union officers by 9 February.
