29th June 2023
As members prepare for their well-deserved and much needed summer break, it is now a full school year since you were balloted and voted for industrial action. Teachers and school leaders continue to demonstrate their capacity to fight for a salary that properly reflects their true worth to society, a salary that will allow them to feel properly valued and respected as the professional educators they are.
While congratulating our members, and those teachers from the other unions that make up the NITC for their determination and resolve, I would like to take this opportunity to outline the proposed road of travel for the unions moving forward.
The thirty-five individual pieces of action that make up our current action short of strike remain in place for September 2023. I would ask members to take some time to revisit these actions, and to ensure that they are embedded in their school practice going into the new school year.
The five teacher unions have acted as one throughout this period of action, and this must continue.
To this end, the NITC Industrial Action Sub-committee will meet prior to schools returning to prepare a calendar of further action for the 2023/24 school year. Once these dates have been agreed, we will communicate them to our members. This will happen in August so that the Committee will be acting against the background of the most up-to-date information regarding the political and educational situation and to allow for fully informed decisions to be taken.
It is imperative that this fight continues. Failure to do so has the potential to have a devastating effect on the life chances of the children and young people across the north. The effect of the real terms pay cuts is already obvious, with the shortage of supply teachers especially subject-specific for post-primary schools. This is made all the more perilous, given that teachers in the north are now the lowest paid teachers across these islands. A teacher in Scotland’s pay is already valued on average at one third more than that of a teacher here.
With this in mind, NITC has submitted a claim for 2023/24 of 12% or inflation plus 2%, whichever is greater, in addition to our claims for 2021/22 and 2022/23.
As has been outlined we will endeavour to keep all members informed with the most up-to-date information available through the INTO website and our social media platforms.
I thank you for your support in this action over the past year and look forward to finding a resolution to our dispute that will be acceptable to all our members, and will be reflective of the true worth of teachers across the north.