Teachers reject 9% pay rise for new starters and warn offer would not be enough to stop strikes

(PA) (PA Wire)

Teachers’ leaders have immediately rejected a reported 9 per cent pay rise proposed for new starters as ministers try to head off a series of strikes across the UK.

The increase, alongside a 5 per cent raise for more experienced staff, has reportedly been proposed by the education secretary Nadhim Zahawi in a letter to the chancellor Rishi Sunak.

But Mary Bousted, the general secretary of the National Education Union, said it was “not enough, it is still a pay cut”, although she added that it would be “a start.”

“If we don’t receive a very much better offer we will be looking to ballot our members in October,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

She warned that even under a ‘best case scenario’ that less than half of the new teachers the UK needs would start training this September.

One in four new starts leaves the profession within two years, she added.

Mr Zahawi has asked the chancellor to give teachers the pay rises in an attempt to head off off strike action later this year, The Daily Telegraph reports.

There are 130,000 teachers in England in the first five years of their careers, who would be affected by the proposed 9 per cent rise.

A raise of 5 per cent would be put forward for the remaining 380,000 teachers in England, instead of the government’s planned initial figure of 3 per cent figure.

Ministers have confirmed that pensioners and welfare claimants are due to get raises of up to 10 per cent to keep pace with soaring inflation.