Welcome for regional pay retreat, but dismay at pay plans for teachers

date: 5 December 2012

embargo: For immediate release

Commenting on the announcement within the autumn statement today (Wednesday) that the government has dropped plans to introduce regional pay for public sector workers in the NHS, prisons and civil service, but is to press ahead with plans to change teachers' pay, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

'It's good to see that the government has seen sense and in the face of huge opposition - from its own backbench MPs, patients, public sector workers, unions and academics - been forced to abandon any plans for localised pay for nurses, paramedics, prison officers and civil servants. Postcode pay would have been impractical, costly, divisive and deeply unfair.

'But unfortunately we've not seen a complete u-turn, and now teachers are to be singled out, selected to become the guinea pigs in the Chancellor's ill-advised public sector pay experiment.

'Today the government has given the green light to all schools to set the salaries of their teachers. This is a harsh decision - teachers are already suffering financial hardship having endured a lengthy pay freeze, now schools will be able to choose how to pay individual staff according to notoriously unreliable measurements of 'performance'.

'This kind of individualised pay will lead to division within staff rooms as teacher is set against teacher. Parents and pupils will suffer too as valuable time and resources are wasted on this divisive approach.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- In September the TUC released polling which showed that more than half of voters (56 per cent) thought that any move to allow individual schools to leave national pay agreements (and so be able to reduce teachers' pay), would be bad for pupils http://survation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Public-Attitudes-to-Regional-Pay-Proposals-Poll-September-2012.pdf

Contacts:

Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248 M: 07778 158175 E: media@tuc.org.uk
Rob Holdsworth T: 020 7467 1372 M: 07717 531150 E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk
Alex Rossiter T: 020 7467 1337 M: 07887 572130 E: arossiter@tuc.org.uk