The union could move to a formal ballot if members indicate a willingness to take industrial action over pay
The National Education Union will ballot its members on whether to accept the government’s proposed 2.8% pay increase for 2025/26.
Teaching staff will be balloted on their “willingness to take industrial action” if the government does not “commit to a significant and fully funded” increase beyond what has already been proposed.
If members reject the pay offer, at the union’s conference in April, they will debate on whether to vote for industrial action, including strikes.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said the proposed 2.8% pay increase “is not sufficient to even start to address the crisis in recruitment and retention”.
He added: “The suggestion that an unfunded pay award can be paid for by making ‘efficiencies’ is an insult to a profession who have already endured 14 years of austerity.
“No teacher or leader will be able to identify efficiencies without cutting staff or resources or both. This is a fact that the Government knows only too well. After years of cuts to funding there is nothing left in the coffers.”
The Department for Education has called the union’s move “an extraordinary decision”.
The NEU will start an indicative ballot of members from 1 March, and it will close on 11 April.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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