NUT / NASUWT Joint Campaign
Protecting Teachers
Defending Education
Speakers Notes for NUT Reps in Sixth Form Colleges
Autumn Term 2012
Action short of strike action
On 28 May 2012 the NUT reached an agreement with NASUWT to coordinate our campaigns to protect teachers’ pensions, pay and working conditions.
As part of that campaign the NUT kept its existing pensions ballot but balloted members to seek their support for action to protect pay and working conditions. Action short of strike action was supported by 93.1 per cent of members that voted in sixth form colleges and discontinuous strike action was supported by 81.2 per cent.
NUT members in schools, academies and sixth form colleges commenced action short of strike action on 3 October. NASUWT members in some sixth colleges are also supporting the action.
Strike action
The NASUWT and NUT are prepared to take joint strike action over pensions and pay and working conditions. As ever we hope to avoid this and are seeking negotiations with Government – however the situation is very serious and we have to be prepared for strike action. Any joint strike action in sixth form colleges will be held at the same time as strike action in schools.
Where do Sixth Form Colleges fit in?
Our disputes relating to schools and sixth form colleges are both with the Secretary of State. The NUT held a parallel ballot in colleges because sixth form college teachers are not on the same pay and conditions as teachers in schools and so the issues are slightly different. The NUT’s dispute with the Secretary of State calls on him to ensure, inter alia, that the pay and conditions for teachers in sixth form colleges are at least equivalent to those for school teachers. This dispute will take forward the NUT’s campaign on sixth form college pay and conditions, which has already highlighted the problems faced by teachers in the sector.
Why this campaign?
Never before have our pay, our pensions, our conditions of employment and our professionalism been under such direct attack. It is not an accident: this Government is determined to break up democratically controlled public education as we know it.
Attacks in colleges include the pay freeze, job losses, restrictions on pay progression and higher workload. All of these result from huge cuts in college funding being imposed by the Government – almost a fifth in real terms over the period to 2015, even greater than the real terms cuts faced by schools. The Government’s overall agenda – the threat of local pay and even longer pay freezes in many areas, more PRP and maybe even the end of national pay scales – will also have implications for colleges. The attacks on pensions are well known – we are already paying more and the Government wants us to work longer to get less in retirement. Workload is through the roof and the Government is trying to remove some of the few protections we have.
That’s why the NUT and NASUWT have launched a strategic response, working together on a joint campaign to protect teachers and defend education.
What does the NASUWT and NUT campaign cover?
The NUT and NASUWT have published a “joint declaration of intent” on the following areas:
- Workload pressures: damaging teachers’ health, threatening educational standards;
- Pensions: unfair contribution increases and changes to pension ages;
- Pay: proposals for local pay and PRP and the continuation of the pay freeze;
- Conditions: attacks on national terms and conditions of service, including due to the academisation of schools; and
- Jobs: arising from funding cuts and curriculum reforms.
The NUT’s fight for teachers’ pensions will continue as a central part of the new campaign. The NUT will not accept that teachers should work until they are 68, pay 50% more for their pensions and get less in retirement. We can use our existing mandate from members to keep the pensions campaign going. The new NUT ballot will allow us to take action over those other issues as well.
You can download the joint declaration and read more information about each of these issues on the NUT website at
What are our demands?
Working hours continue to rise, but much of this workload is required by over the top accountability systems rather than being directed at teaching more useful and exciting lessons. It betrays a real lack of trust in teachers andtreats us all as though we are on capability procedures. We have said to the Government that we want to talk to them about school/college and teacher accountability. No one thinks teachers shouldn’t be accountable, but we need systems which encourage rather than demotivate and which are based on trusting teachers.
We want to negotiate agreements with Government which will:
- keep the existing statutory limits on observation.
- reduce the number of Ofsted inspections.
- introduce measures to reduce overall workload.
- defend the current pay arrangements and
- end the pay freeze.
Some may ask whether now is the right time to widen our dispute – well, if not now, when? Pensions are under attack but so are pay and conditions. Workload and stress are shooting up. This Government is more aggressive towards teachers than any we have known. The chance of coordinating the work of the NUT and NASUWT is not one that we should pass up.
The Pensions Campaign
The NUT has led the fight over pensions and the NUT pensions ballot is still valid– any strike action would be on both campaigns. Joint action has already won concessions on pensions. Teachers over 50 are protected on the existing pension scheme. The Government has increased its offer on pensions for other teachers. A pension of £10,000 under its original proposals would now be £10,800 under its new proposals. Two days of strike action on pensions has won £800 a year! But that pension would be £15,000 under the existing scheme – showing why the pensions campaign must continue.
We must also act to protect teachers against the Government’s wider attacks on them. NUT members have told us that they believe that joint action is most effective. They understand that this Government is a tough nut to crack. Joint action has won the concessions made on pensions so far. Joint action in teaching is needed to resist these other attacks.
NUT and NASUWT working together
Following the NUT and NASUWT joint declaration on 28 May ( the two unions wrote to the Secretary of State calling for urgent discussions about the concerns of the teaching profession. We want to talk and we are willing to meet at any time.
If the Government refuses to listen, there may be joint strike action later this term. As ever we hope to avoid this and are seeking negotiations with Government – however the situation is very serious and we have to be prepared for joint strike actionwith NASUWT.
We can win more if we are united – the NUT & NASUWT together represent 85% of teachers in England and Wales (NUT 44% and NASUWT 41%).
NUT and NASUWT working together – we can win