With inflation reaching 40-year highs and the spiraling cost of living crisis starting to hit an increasing number of households, two of the largest British trade unions, representing teachers and staff in the National Health Service (NHS), have warned of industrial action unless they get a pay rise.
The National Education Union (NEU), the biggest teaching union in the country, stated that unless it receives assurances of a pay increase more in line with inflation by 22 June, it plans to ballot its 450,000 members.
UK Education Secretary Nadim Zahawi would need to offer “significantly” above the 3 percent pay increase suggested earlier this year if industrial action is to be avoided, stated Joint General-Secretary of the NEU, Kevin Courtney.
“Pay is already down 20 percent on 2010. The strains are showing. One in eight of new graduate teachers are leaving in their first year,” he was cited as saying.
Courtney said that the union would be balloting members to gauge reactions, after which a follow-up ballot specifically on industrial action could result in strikes in schools in the autumn.
“If there is no significant improvement on 3 percent – which would leave an 8 percent gap with inflation this year alone – we could not avoid a ballot. The mood among teachers has changed. Last year the issue was mainly workload. This year it is workload and pay. Teachers are doing calculations to see what their hourly pay works out at,” Courtney added.
These sentiments are shared by another teachers’ union, the NASUWT, which echoed warnings of imminent strikes unless its pay demands were met. The NASUWT - a Trades Union Congress (TUC)-affiliated union representing nearly 300,000 teachers and school leaders throughout the UK, said it would then ballot members on industrial action from November in England, Scotland and Wales.
“Teachers are suffering, not only from the cost of living crisis, which the whole country is grappling with, but 12 years of real terms pay cuts which has left a 20 percent shortfall in the value of their salaries,” its general-secretary, Patrick Roach, said.
He added that the union would not allow cuts to members’ pay.
“If a pay rise is not awarded, it will be won by our members in workplaces through industrial action,” Roach warned.
Meanwhile, Unison, the largest of the country's labour unions, which counts NHS staff among its members, has also reportedly warned of a mass exodus of staff and possible industrial action affecting hospitals unless salaries are brought closer to inflation.
In the coming days, the UK will begin to announce the next round of annual NHS pay awards. However, for millions of staff up to senior nurse level, the pay offer is expected to fall substantially short of the present inflation rate of 9.2 percent. In 2021 NHS workers were awarded a pay rise of 3 percent.
“The government has a simple choice. Either it makes a sensible pay award, investing in staff and services and reducing delays for patients. Or it risks a potential dispute, growing workforce shortages and increased suffering for the sick,” Christina McAnea, general-secretary of Unison, said.
In response to the warnings from the unions, a spokesman for the UK Department for Education said:
“We are taking action to support teachers to stay in the profession and thrive, working to deliver pay increases and pay awards for new and experienced teachers.”
The Department of Health and Social Care responded by saying that no decisions had been made yet, but it would “carefully consider the recommendations from the independent pay review bodies.”
The fresh warnings of industrial action come as three days of national strike action have been slated for 21, 23 and 25 June across Network Rail and 13 train operating companies, promising major disruptions to swathes of the country’s train network. Furthermore, on Tuesday 21 June, strikes are also set to affect the London Underground. The RMT union said it was "unacceptable for railway workers either to lose their job or face another year of pay freeze" while inflation reached 40-year highs.
On Saturday, thousands of public sector workers took to London’s Parliament Square to call for more support during the cost-of-living crisis.
The TUC, which organised the event, says its research suggests workers have lost almost £20,000 since 2008 because pay has failed to keep pace with soaring inflation.