Governors at Spalding Grammar School have vowed to look again at the effect of introducing an across-the-board pay rise after staff members in the National Union of Teachers voted overwhelmingly to back strike action.
A ballot of staff in the union – understood to be a high proportion of employees – returned a 100 per cent backing for industrial action. The turnout was 77 per cent.
NUT national executive member and division secretary Ken Rustidge told The Voice: “This demonstrates the strength of feeling amongst members.
“Our hope is that now we can have serious negotiation and avoid the need to take further action.”
The dispute is over a one per cent pay rise. The school operates as an academy and therefore deals with its budget independently. Senior management says it cannot afford to offer such an increase across the board without other areas suffering. However, an increase in pay scales is proposed, which would lift some teachers’ salaries, but not those already at the top end of the current scale.
The union accused the school of digging its heels in and “refusing to implement the paltry cost of living increase that other Lincolnshire schools have”.
This week, the school said it would look again at the possibility of introducing the pay rise, but it would be a difficult balancing act.
Chairman of the governors, the Rev John Bennett, said: “I had my regular meeting as chair of governors with [headteacher] Steve Wilkinson last Friday.
“We discussed ways of adjusting spending priorities within the school’s budget, and we looked once again at the longer-term effect of making cuts in other areas of expenditure.
“The next governors’ meeting is on February 22. Governors have consistently made clear how much we appreciate the hard work and dedication of teachers and if an increase in pay had been funded by the government, we would not have hesitated for one moment in making sure that they received it.
“At the next meeting governors will take account of the strong feelings of some staff reflected in the vote for strike action on a number of days. In carrying out our duty to make sure that students at the school receive the best education we can, we will have to decide then how to balance the effect of an increase in pay for teachers, along with what will happen if we agree to take that money away from other essential expenditure for the school, against the disruption caused by strike action.”
