'An insult': Unions dismiss Government's hint at end to 1% pay cap for teachers

'We’ve had nothing but this flip-flopping from the Government over the last three months, one announcement after another with no real detail,' says Rehana Azam of GMB union

Liz Truss, chief secretary to the Treasury, said in a letter that ‘more flexibility’ may be required in order to improve the productivity of the public sector (Reuters)

Unions have dismissed hints by the Government at an end to the 1 per cent pay cap for teachers and other public sector workers, saying it provides “no real detail” on how it would be funded and calling the gesture an “insult” to workers and the public.

A letter from Liz Truss, the chief secretary to the Treasury, to the board responsible for recommending teachers’ pay awards said shortages meant it was prepared to accept a pay rise above the 1 per cent limit for 2018-19, according to The Guardian.

In the letter to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), also said to have been sent similar letters to other public sector pay review boards, Ms Truss reportedly stated that “more flexibility” may be required in order to improve the productivity of the public sector.

But the letter has been received with cynicism from unions, who warned that without extra funding for school budgets, any pay rises to “increase productivity” would simply be an attempt to “squeeze” more out of public sector workers.

Rehana Azam, the GMB union’s national secretary for public services, told The Independent: “We’ve had nothing but this flip-flopping from the Government over the last three months, one announcement after another with no real detail.

“It’s cynical. It’s an insult to workers and an insult to the public as well.

“If you compare Liz Truss’s letter to previous letters, there’s not much else in there except she said she’s going to listen. My concern is she’s using terms like ‘increase in productivity’ and ‘more flexibility’.

“Research shows that the proportion of public sector workers in 2017 is the lowest it’s ever been since 1947, so when she says increase flexibility, efficiency and productivity, I’m at a loss to understand how you can squeeze more out of public sector workers when there’s less of them.”

Ms Azam went on to say there was “no mention” of how a teachers’ pay rise would be funded, saying that without additional funding from central Government, it would end up being at the expense of other budgets, which would likely impact the pupils themselves.

“Where is this money going to come from? Even if Liz Truss says to the pay review bodies we’ll consider something above 1 per cent, there is no mention that it will be centrally funded,” she said. “ It’s the kids who are missing out here.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), said Ms Truss’s letter was welcome news but that any pay rise must be fully funded in order to be meaningful.

“As the letter says, the Government has recognised that depressed pay is contributing to a shortage of recruits and the ability to hold on to talented and experienced school staff,” he said.

“NAHT would like to see a national framework that defines the roles and sets out the pay and conditions of everyone employed in a national, publicly funded education system, including school business leaders, executive heads and CEO roles.”

Mr Whiteman added that a “stubborn political rhetoric” had up to now obstructed the “strong moral case” for increasing public sector pay, but urged that any pay rise would be “meaningless” unless it was funded fully into school budgets.

“It is now crystal clear that the review body was not able to recommend a pay award based on the evidence. There is a strong moral case for increasing public sector pay, which has been obstructed up to now by stubborn political rhetoric. There’s nothing fair about that,” he said.

“It is clear that a new approach to pay is needed. The STRB needs a remit that can look beyond a 1 per cent maximum and, crucially, all pay rises must be fully funded into school budgets otherwise they will be meaningless in practice.”

The letter comes after sustained pressure from NAHT, which wrote to the Education Secretary, Justine Greening, earlier in the month highlighting the growing evidence that teacher recruitment is being harmed by low pay.

A recent report by the National Audit Office also stated that schools were unable to fill vacancies and of teachers increasingly leaving the sector before they reach retirement age.

Ms Truss also warned that the 2018-19 pay awards were likely to be delayed by the Government’s move to an annual budget from autumn.

“I recognise that this is far from ideal as our hard-working public servants are entitled to receive their awards promptly,” she wrote in her letters to the pay bodies.

It comes as Ms Greening is said to be preparing to announce at the Conservative conference in Manchester that she wants to go ahead with a manifesto pledge to open teacher training to apprentices.

In her speech to the conference on Sunday, Ms Greening will indicate she wants a new route into teaching via high quality degree apprenticeships, which would allow school-leavers to train and study while getting paid, according to The Guardian.

Ms Azam slammed this idea, saying that the majority of already existent apprenticeships for teaching assistants paid less than the minimum wage and accusing ministers of trying to employ workers “on the cheap” to improve public service.

“The GMB is the biggest union for teaching assistants and school support staff, and we’ve recently researched ... that 75 per cent of teaching assistant apprenticeship vacancies were advertised at £3.50 an hour,” she told The Independent.

“You can’t bring workers in on the cheap as a way of trying to deliver a service.”

Earlier this month, the Government was accused of “papering over the cracks” after it announced a new funding formula for schools that would see budgets fall in real terms and which critics said would do “nothing” to reverse cuts that have already been made.

The Treasury has been approached for comment.