INTO, NAHT, NEU and UTU are jointly running a pay campaign for teachers over the 6 weeks in the run up to the Assembly election on 5 May 2022. 

The objective of this campaign is to force the issue of teachers’ pay on to the agenda of the political parties and to make resolving the issue a feature of the post-election political negotiations.    

NITC unions are arguing for political commitment in the coming mandate to resolving teachers’ pay.

The impact of Public Pay Policy (maximum of 1%) is continuing to erode the value of teachers’ pay.

The education employers through the Department of Education must engage with DoF (Finance) after the elections to prioritise pay resolution.

NITC believe that the issue of Teachers’ Pay must be included as a key concern and included at the top of the agenda in any new or revised ‘Stormont House’ Agreement or similar. 

Our members have already clearly expressed frustration and anger over their pay, workload and working conditions.

Teachers are disappointed that there has been no recognition of the dedication and hard work during the pandemic when teachers stood up as key workers to ensure the continuation of education and implementing remote learning alongside face-to-face learning for the children of other key workers and vulnerable children.

NITC are calling on the Executive to;

·         avoid further pay ‘cuts’ 

·         urgently repair the damage that has already been done because of the erosion of teachers’ pay.

·         listen to the united voice of the teaching profession and make the changes necessary to properly value teachers and school leaders.

Teachers and school leaders have suffered from a succession of pay cuts against inflation for over a decade, negatively impacting the ability of the profession to compete against other graduate professions and increasing recruitment and retention problems. 

The impact of the pay freeze, and below inflation pay increases continue to be felt while inflation climbs higher. 

Huge rises in energy costs and the National Insurance increases will only add to the already devastating impact of the attacks on teacher and school leader pay levels since 2010.

Increases to starting pay must be seen alongside equivalent increases for all teachers and school leaders, and those increases must be enough to begin to restore the pay losses against inflation since 2010.

To value education, Employers must also value educators and that means proper pay!

#SupportFairPayInEducation