Industry News
NUT threatens strike ballot
Posted on 20th December 2007
Following claims earlier this year that private school staff salaries are rising by 4.3 per cent, a teaching union has threatened to strike if state classroom staff are awarded a below-inflation pay rise.
The National Union of Teachers (NUT) has claimed it is ready to ballot members on strike action if Gordon Brown continues the "erosion" of teachers' pay.
Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the NUT, has accused the prime minister of letting teachers down by effectively cutting their salaries for the last three years.
"[The prime minister's] expansive and visionary aspirations for schools and the teaching profession cannot be met without teachers being paid the levels of salary which reflect the high standards of professionalism demanded of them," he argued.
Earlier this year, the general secretary of the Independent Schools Council Jonathan Shephard commented that private schools attract more qualified teachers than many of the country's state comprehensives.
Furthermore, within private sector classrooms, teachers can teach children more than the curriculum which allows them more "professional freedom", he continued.
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