Largest Teachers Union To Launch Ballot Over Strike Action
The National Education Union (NEU) marches to Trafalgar Square as teachers strike
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The government faces the prospect of a teacher walkout later this year over an "inadequate" pay offer.
The country's largest teaching union, the National Education Union (NEU), is set to announce an indicative ballot over possible strike action on pay and school funding, PoliticsHome understands.
The union's executive met on Wednesday night and agreed to move to an indicative ballot, which will begin in March.
The move comes after the Department for Education (DfE) recommended a 2.8 per cent teacher pay rise in 2025-26, which sector leaders described as "extremely disappointing".
The ballot will ask members if they accept or reject a 2.8 per cent pay rise for next year.
On Thursday Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the NEU, is expected to tell members: "It is our view that 2.8 per cent is not adequate. It does not recognise the hard work that you do. But crucially, it will not keep our teachers in our schools or recruit new ones into the profession.
"An unfunded pay award will be disastrous for the profession."
The previous Conservative government faced months of strike action in 2023, with all four major education unions backing industrial action.
This action mostly came to an end after the unions accepted a pay offer of 6.5 per cent.
The NEU also launched a ballot last year but teachers were awarded 5.5 per cent.
A DfE spokesperson told PoliticsHome: “This is an extraordinary decision.
"In three years, teachers have had a combined pay increase of over 17 per cent.
"As schools and families continue doing everything they can to improve attendance, and after the millions of school days lost through both the pandemic and recent industrial action, union leaderships need to think long and hard about whose interests they are putting first.
"For the Government and the Education Secretary, it is always children who come first.”
