Select a region
Guernsey and Alderney's teachers are coming to the end of a disappointing and frustrating week with their unions considering their next steps following the decision of their pay Tribunal.
In response to questions posed by Express, the NASUWT said they are considering their next steps.
Dr Patrick Roach, NASUWT General Secretary, did not reply when asked if teachers and their unions will accept the legally binding decision of the Tribunal which sided with the States and enforced their pay offer earlier this week.
Dr Patrick Roach is the General Secretary of the NASUWT.
Teachers had been asking for higher pay increases for 2022, '23 and '24, but the Tribunal panel said the States offer was reasonable and it made the award in the States favour.
Dr Roach said: "We are considering our next steps."
He also said that "feedback from NASUWT representatives shows that members are extremely disappointed and frustrated by the Tribunal’s response".
One comment made by Deputy David Mahoney - who represented Policy and Resources at the Tribunal - has caused particular concern for the unions with Dr Roach urging him to retract it.
"Deputy Mahoney’s comments were disgraceful, and need to be withdrawn. It is simply unacceptable for the Employer’s representative, in response to legitimate concerns from teachers, to tell them to 'put up or leave'.
"It is no surprise in the face of this contemptuous attitude that nearly half of teachers in Guernsey do not expect to be teaching on the Island in three years. Unless this attitude changes, and the States actually start treating teachers with respect, which has been missing for many years, the situation is not going to improve."
Pictured: The Tribunal was held at the Peninsula Hotel earlier this week.
P&R is responsible for all employment matters within the States of Guernsey's workforce, with Deputy Mahoney taking the lead position in that area.
He approached pay deals with a blanket effect during this term of office - and all other pay groups accepted it, albeit with some reluctance on the part of the Agenda for Change group, which includes nurses - who were also threatening strike action before accepting the three-year offer.
The offer was a 5% uplift to salaries for 2022 with a £500 payment to be consolidated into pay scales, becoming permanent and pensionable (backdated to 1 January 2022 with the applicable RPIX of 2.3%), an uplift equal to RPIX as at 30 June 2022, which was 7%, for 2023, and an uplift equal to RPIX as at 30 June 2023, minus 1% for 2024.
The unions had asked for 7% for 2022 plus the £500 uplift, and 2% above inflation for 2023 and 2024.
Pictured: The pay award given to the teachers following the Tribunal hearing yesterday.
The unions had argued that pay erosion since 2008 left teachers pay lagging far behind what it should be, and that teachers were being forced into relative poverty.
They said that just because other pay groups had accepted the pay offer, it didn't mean it was fair.
The Tribunal Panel - Chaired by Roy Lewis, with lay members Jamie Roussel and Nicolla Tanguy - decided to award teachers the pay deal that Policy and Resources had offered them for 2022, 2023 and 2024 saying that the matter was "...not a simple one," but that the offer "was not unreasonable" in the face of challenges facing the States.
In response to concerns raised during the Tribunal by Deputy Mahoney that the unions may still push for industrial action if the Panel decided to award the SoG pay offer to teachers, the Tribunal members included a caveat in their judgment reminding both sides the "the award is legally binding and is the final decision of the Tribunal".
Teachers: "Our dispute with the States continues"
Teachers lose: pay deal settled
Some teachers claim to be living in poverty
Teachers and States to go head to head
"Very fair award" remains open to teachers
Teachers could 'work to rule' in pay row
Teachers could strike over pay dispute
Teachers "seriously considered" quitting
Teachers' union: “Failure to commence negotiations in good time is unacceptable"
States want staff vote on pay deal
Line drawn under pay negotiations
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.