20th January 2023
Industrial Action: Update for Members
20 January 2022
Dear Members
At the meeting of Northern Committee on Friday 13 January 2023, given that there has been no significant movement from Management Side to resolve the issue of teachers’ pay, the Committee voted to move to the next phase of our industrial action mandate, strike action.
INTO is taking strike action because cuts to teachers’ pay, and lack of funding for schools, is causing a crisis in education.
- The value of teachers pay has fallen in real terms by 20% since 2010.
- This has caused an additional crisis in recruitment and retention.
- More teachers and school leaders than ever are leaving their jobs and enough teachers cannot be recruited to replace them. This is leading to a significant shortage of supply teacher cover especially in specific subject areas.
- Funding for schools has not kept pace with rising costs which will ultimately lead to further redundancies across the North.
The first of the planned days of action is scheduled to take place in the weeks immediately following the February half-term break. The action will initially consist of members withdrawing their labour for a morning, with the action beginning at 1am and teachers returning to school at 12pm. It is expected that the action will be co-ordinated across all the constituent members of the Northern Ireland Teachers’ Council.
PLP update
Members are instructed to disengage with the implementation of Phase 1 PLPs due to related workload issues and should where necessary revert back to using IEPs. Members are further reminded that from 4 January 2023, they are instructed not to participate in training for, or the implementation of any work relating to Phase 2 of SEND Implementation and PLPs, until instructed to the contrary.
Contact the Northern Office or your Northern Committee Representative for further details.