IMMEDIATE RELEASE 11 July 2003
Commenting on the Governments evidence tothe School Teachers Review Body, Doug McAvoy, General Secretary of the NUT,the UKs biggest teachers union with 251,000 members, said:
The Governments demand that progress onthe upper pay scale should be cash limited confirms all our arguments againstperformance related pay. The position of the Government demonstrates it is notconcerned with recruitment and retention of teachers. It makes no allowance forteachers pay to compete with other graduate employment.
Because of the concessions of thesignatories to the workforce agreement, the Government is now able to use cheapsubstitutes for teachers.
The Union is totally opposed to amulti-year settlement imposed through the review body. Multi-year agreementsshould result from negotiations. There are no negotiations for teachers, merelyimposition.
The Governments approach to performancerelated pay is exactly as predicted by the Union when it alone opposed theintroduction of payment by results. TheGovernment conjures up significant rises for all through performance relatedpay then with a wave of a wand removes them.
Todays submission from the Government isthat of the con man who promotes rich rewards but then puts conditions in thefine print making the rewards unachievable for most.
The Government must be laughing at thoseunions which by agreeing that unqualified persons can teach, have paved the wayfor the profession to be undermined as well as under paid.
EN D PR.53/03
For further information contact: Olive Forsythe tel: 020 7380 4706 (office) 01502 478521 (weekends)or if all else fails 07879 480061.