Headteachers to vote on strikes for the first time

National Association of Head Teachers to hold ballot on whether to take industrial action over cuts to pensions Teachers stepped closer to mounting their biggest strike in a generation this autumn after a headteachers’ union decided it would ballot members to take industrial action over pension reforms. The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) , which represents more than 28,000 heads and their deputies, will hold its first strike ballot of its 114-year history from 29 September. If members vote in favour of industrial action, a co-ordinated strike with several other classroom unions could take place on 30 November and would be likely to shut the majority of schools in England and Wales. The National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers have already voted to carry out rolling strikes, while another teachers’ union, the NASUWT, has proposed industrial action. The Public and Commercial Services Union has already said it is planning a strike in November. A government-commissioned report in March by the former Labour minister Lord Hutton called for final salary pension schemes to be scrapped and replaced with career averages for public sector workers. He recommended that public sector staff should pay higher monthly contributions and called for a rise in the retirement age to 68 – most headteachers now retire aged 60 to 65. The government has said changes are needed because the cost of teachers’ pensions will rise from about £5bn in 2005 to almost £10bn by 2015 as more staff retire and life expectancy increases. Russell Hobby, general secretary of the NAHT, said the decision to ballot members was taken with “great reluctance”. “Faced with a refusal by the government to negotiate on the basis of a proper valuation of the scheme, we feel we have no option but to demonstrate our anger at this attack on the teaching profession,” he said. “We fear for the future of a system with a demoralised and devalued profession. We fear that we will not be able to attract people to become heads at a time when targets and workloads are rising.” He said many headteachers believed an attack on pensions was a threat to the future of education itself. “Teaching is a vocation and no one entered the profession to get rich. However, we do need to ensure that teaching is an attractive career choice for the most talented graduates. Future pupils deserve nothing less.” In June, teachers staged the biggest school strikes since the 1980s over the pension reforms. More than 2 million pupils missed classes and thousands of parents were forced to take a day off work with nearly 6,000 schools closed and 5,000 partially closed. In total, half of schools were affected. A Cabinet Office spokesman said there was “genuine engagement” with trade unions over pensions. “We have a lot to talk about and there are proposals on the table for discussion.” Schools Public sector pay Teaching Trade unions Pensions Public sector cuts Public sector pensions Jessica Shepherd guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 22, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.