Teaching union NASUWT begins industrial action

The NASUWT teaching union will begin industrial action short of strike in Northern Ireland schools from Monday.

The industrial action will affect 20 duties, including covering for other staff, overseeing exams, lesson plans, inspections and school meetings.

It was announced after teaching unions in Northern Ireland rejected a pay offer from their employers.

More than 80% of NASUWT members voted for strike action and almost all voted for action short of a strike.

The union's Justin McCamphill said pay and workload were their members' biggest concerns.

"We're taking it [strike action] because teachers haven't been treated well. They haven't been treated well through Covid, and they haven't been treated well in relation to the pay offer.

"The reality is teachers, day in and day out, are working above and beyond what's in their contract. Members have said to us enough is enough."

Teachers previously received a 2% pay rise for 2019/20 and 2% again in 2020/21.

But the unions rejected as "inadequate" a two-year pay offer for the years from 2021 to 2023.

In a letter to school principals seen by BBC News NI, NASUWT laid out the details of duties and actions to be suspended.

Separately the NAHT union - which represents many school leaders - has warned that the NASUWT action "will seriously curtail activities and development across our schools".

In an open letter to the permanent secretary at the Department of Education (DE), the NAHT said "a fair pay settlement must be pursued with urgency".

They also said it was "unsafe, unreasonable and impossible" to expect school leaders to take on extra work to keep schools unaffected.

From May 9, NASUWT members will not cooperate with any school inspections or "attend more than one parents' evening".

They will also "not attend more than one meeting each month outside pupil session times" or "undertake invigilation of public examinations".

The NASUWT also said teachers would not respond to work text messages or emails outside school hours or during lunch.

Teachers will not collect money from pupils for school activities, carry out bulk photocopying or cover for staff absence apart from under specific circumstances.

Extra-curricular activities could also be affected, but NASUWT said teachers could still organise sports teams, music or drama productions and other clubs if they had volunteered to do so.

The NASUWT is one of the largest teaching unions in Northern Ireland.

The other unions - INTO, UTU, NEU and NAHT - have also called for "fair pay for teachers" but have not yet announced what action they will take if a pay deal is not agreed.

The Department of Education has previously warned it is facing significant budget pressures in 2022/23.

In a separate dispute, members of the Unite union in the Education Authority (EA), local councils and the Housing Executive have also recently taken industrial action on strike over what they have said is an unacceptable 1.75% pay offer.