14/11/2024

Minister Reacts To Teachers' Union Ballot Threat

Education Minister Paul Givan has responded to the announcement by several teachers' unions that they plan to ballot their members for industrial action over 2024/25 pay.

Earlier this year, the Minister provided funding to successfully resolve the long-running industrial dispute over teachers' pay for 2021-24.

The pay settlement agreed by the Teachers' Negotiating Committee (TNC) included a significant increase in the starting salary for teachers to £30,000, representing a 24.3% rise from the current starting salary. Additionally, the agreement provided for a cumulative total of 10.4% plus £1,000 consolidated increase to be applied to other teachers' and leadership pay scales. This settlement brought an end to industrial action by teachers in April of this year.
News Image
Expressing his disappointment the Minister said: "On Monday, the Executive announced October monitoring allocations and I am currently considering the implications of the additional financial allocation to Education.

"It was with disappointment that I was notified today of the decision by a number of teachers' unions to proceed to ballot their members for industrial action in the coming weeks.

"Since my appointment as Education Minister, earlier this year my focus has been on improving the educational experience of all our children and young people, and on the staff who make that possible. To that end, I secured Executive funding to resolve the long running industrial dispute on teachers' pay.

"This agreement ended industrial action by teachers in April, and I had hoped that this would allow us to increase stability and work together to improve the educational experience of our children.

"Any proposals for a teachers' pay award must be affordable and this is difficult given the current financial pressures, however we will continue to work with the TNC joint pay group to seek a resolution."

Related Northern Ireland News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

21 September 2011
O'Dowd Hits Back On Classroom Jobs
Fears over an apparent lack of job opportunities for newly qualified teachers have been in focus this week. It has been claimed that as many as 95% of new teachers are unable to secure full time jobs. That's according to a DUP MLA who underlined the claim when MLAs debated the concerns over the number of new teachers at Stormont.
04 April 2023
NI Teachers Announce Strike Action For 26 April
Teachers from five teaching unions across NI have announced that they will take strike action on Wednesday 26 April, over the failure to offer teachers and Further Education lecturers a fair and decent pay award.
02 April 2024
Education Minister Welcomes Progress On Teacher's Pay
Education Minister, Paul Givan, has welcomed further progress on a pay settlement for teachers following the Department of Finance's approval of the pay award. All five recognised teachers' unions (INTO, NAHT, NASUWT, NEU, UTU) have signalled their acceptance of the teachers' pay offer for 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24.
02 February 2016
NASUWT Rejects Pay Offer
NI's largest teachers' union has rejected a pay offer for teachers and principals. The offer to the NASUWT was made by the management side of the Teachers Negotiating Committee (TNC). The offer continues the year-on-year cuts to teachers' pay. The NASUWT is calling for an across the board above inflation cost of living award.
31 January 2017
NI's Largest Teachers Union Takes Strike Action
Northern Ireland's largest teachers' union, the NASUWT, are to stage industrial action today, 31 January, at schools in L'Derry, Strabane, Mid Ulster, Fermanagh and Omagh. It is the second stage of a rolling programme of strike action across NI which began on 30 November, 2016, with a day of strike action from teachers in Belfast and Newtownabbey.