A Message from the General Secretary

This issue of “Headway” provides information on the NUT’s Fair Pay for Teachers campaign. Further guidance will be provided to NUT head teacher and leadership group members in the event of a positive response to the strike action ballot currently underway.

While Government initiatives make ever greater the demands of them, the value of head teachers’ and teachers’ pay is diminished year on year.

Head teachers and teachers too have high expectations: for levels of salary commensurate with the high levels of professionalism which are expected of them. That's why Britain’s largest teachers’ organisation, the NUT, is campaigning for head teachers and teachers to be paid properly.

Increases in head teachers’ and teachers’ pay in 2006 and 2007 were well below inflation. Since the cost of living has risen by more than their pay, head teachers and teachers are already worse off in real terms than they were in 2005. With inflation at 4 per cent, the position will soon get worse.

There is no backdated pay increase for 2006 and 2007. The below inflation pay increases in those years have already cut teachers’ pay in real terms. This means that the pay increases for future years will already be worth less in cash than they might have been.

Pay policies for teachers of this kind have real consequences for the profession and our schools. Year-onyear pay that fails to keep pace with inflation always saps morale and causes problems of recruitment, retention and teacher shortages. It’s time to call a halt. Vote “YES” in the ballot. Fair pay for all head teachers and teachers!

Best wishes