HEAD teachers in Jersey are to go on strike for the first time ever next week, joining colleagues in an unprecedented co-ordinated day of action involving members of all three teaching unions.
Island schools are set to close next Tuesday, just a week after the start of the new academic year – with the strike day marking the latest development in an increasingly bitter pay dispute between the government and teachers.
The NASUWT teaching union has announced a further two days of strike action for its members on 18 and 19 October.
Within a few hours on Monday morning, the three teaching unions all confirmed their intention to strike, with the National Association of Head Teachers doing so for the first time. A rally will take place in the Royal Square next Tuesday, coinciding with the week’s States Assembly sitting.
Unions said the States Employment Board had ‘cynically withdrawn’ pay promises made earlier in the summer without an explanation, leaving members angry.
But Children’s and Education Minister Inna Gardiner criticised the unions for going on strike without accepting a government offer to take the pay dispute to arbitration, or giving the employer (the government) any warning.
Strike action for the opening weeks of the new term was originally scheduled towards the end of the summer term, but then shelved in what unions described as a gesture of goodwill after the employer agreed a back-dated pay rise of 7.9%, as well as giving pledges to improve working conditions and the inclusion of a lump sum of £220 for all employees. Unions previously called for a 15.4% rise to address what they said was a real-terms cut in pay over the last 15 years.
Dr Patrick Roach, NASUWT general secretary, said: ‘This backdated pay award would have gone some way towards addressing the impact of the cost-of-living crisis and real-terms cuts that teachers have been subjected to, but the promises of backdated pay have been cynically withdrawn without explanation.
‘Our members have been angered by the actions of the government and they are resolute in stepping up their industrial action.’
Dr Roach described the strike action, which for his union involves further strikes on 18 and 19 October, as ‘completely avoidable’, but said it would continue until the SEB delivered a better deal for teachers on pay and working conditions.
Deputy Gardiner said that in order to back-date pay, unions needed to sign agreements, but had failed to do this, leaving seven months of back pay outstanding.
Saying that she had first learned about the strikes from the media yesterday morning, Deputy Gardiner said: ‘This was a really disappointing surprise for me, and for the parents and children affected.
‘After years of disruption it is really important that children get back into a routine, but instead they will have two days out of school [including the air display on Thursday 14 September] in the first full week of term.
‘I completely accept the right of teachers to strike, but there was an offer of arbitration made in June and if the two sides can’t agree, then there’s a need for someone in the middle.’
Marina Mauger, of the NASUWT, said unions had ‘no intention’ that the employer should find out via the media and conceded that there had been failings in communication. But she denied that there had been any written agreement offered to unions to sign, adding: ‘I don’t know what she [the minister] is talking about.’
Carl Howarth, president of NAHT Jersey, said: ‘Any form of industrial action is a last resort. We understand that any action we are taking may cause inconvenience and we apologise in advance for this.
‘However, in the face of a government that is refusing to deal with the very real and legitimate concerns that we have, and following years of real-terms pay cuts, we have no option and a civil responsibility to take action in order to protect the quality of education in our island.’
While there have been teachers’ strikes in recent years, most recently a one-day walk-out by NEU members in July, this is the first time all three unions have staged a strike on the same day.
Rob Kelsall, NAHT’s assistant general secretary, said the association’s members had been ‘pushed to the brink’, while Nick Childs of the NEU said the SEB’s offer was ‘derisory’.
Assistant Chief Minister Andy Jehan, who is vice-chair of the SEB, said there was a simple solution to the issue.
‘Both the NASUWT and National Education Union have to write to us accepting the back pay and the end of the pay dispute in 2023, and we will make this payment at the earliest opportunity,’ he said.
‘With pay discussions due to start soon for 2024, where the unions are expecting to negotiate a multi-year deal, it is important we start them with a clear field and a constructive and mature approach.’
