THE government has done “everything it can” to try and settle the teachers’ pay dispute, the Social Security Minister has claimed – as members of one of the Island’s main unions were today due to begin another round of strikes.
Deputy Elaine Millar, who was appointed as vice-chair of the States Employment Board after St John Constable Andy Jehan’s recent resignation, said the public service employer remained open to further discussions – but stressed that “everybody has to be realistic”.
As of yesterday afternoon, the National Education Union remained set to begin a three-day strike today, after its members voted to reject an 8% pay increase that would take effect from 1 January 2024, a one-off payment of £1,000 on the same date and pay rises matching inflation for 2025 and 2026.
The other main teachers’ union, the NASUWT, has suspended its work-to-rule industrial action while consulting its members on the government’s offer, with a ballot set to run until 15 December.
Teachers have already received a 7.9% pay rise for 2023, backdated to 1 January this year.
Deputy Millar said it was “incredibly disappointing” that the NEU had rejected the SEB’s latest offer, noting that meeting the unions’ demands could compromise public finances (see letter on page 3).
She explained: “The Government Plan will have envisaged a pay rise across the board at 7.9%.
“We have to be realistic to the taxpayer. We have to be realistic to what we can do with taxpayer funds, because if we take money from other pots and use them to pay teachers, that means that there will be other public services that are effectively short-changed.
“The provision of services costs money and we have got to be fair across the whole public sector.”
She added that the NEU had asked for a 17.6% rise in 2024, describing the demand as something that the government “just cannot do”.
The union’s joint district and branch secretary in Jersey, Adrian Moss, said that the figure had been used as a “starting point” for negotiations.
He said the decision to reject the most recent offer was partly because it had “too many components”, including a stipulation that the requirement to give seven days’ notice for a strike would be increased to 14 days.
He added: “After years of below-inflation pay cuts, the government’s solution to what is essentially a year-long dispute over pay, is to offer another real-terms cut for next year.
“We are open to further negotiations and hope to find a more creative solution moving forward.”
Deputy Millar said the SEB had done “everything we can”.
“Nobody wants to see strikes happening, but we have to be realistic about what we can afford and we have to be fair to everybody else in the public sector.
“We really want to find a solution. We accept it is the teachers’ right to strike if they wish to, but we really want to find a solution and we are open to independent arbitration – and we are open to discuss it further at any time.”
