Dear Deputy Mahoney
Teachers Pay Award
You will be aware that the joint unions through the Negotiating Committee for Teachers and Lecturers in Guernsey (NCTLG) have previously raised concerns around the failure of the States to commence meaningful negotiations on the 2022 pay award for Teachers and Lecturers.
The pay award was due to take effect on 1 January 2022, the States having unilaterally changed the award date from 1 September without any consultation, claiming this would streamline the process. This pay award is now seriously overdue. The delay is compounding the cost of living crisis and will be causing significant hardship for some teachers and lecturers, who have not had a substantial pay increase since 2019.
The Joint Unions previously wrote to you in March stating the delay to the commencement of negotiations was unacceptable, and your reply assured us that negotiations would commence imminently. However, the NCTLG have been offered 19 May as the first substantive pay negotiations meeting, five months after the pay award was meant to take effect.
The failure to commence negotiations in good time is simply unacceptable, and despite your assertions to the contrary, this further delay provides yet more evidence that the employer has failed to make this a priority. It will worsen an already severe recruitment crisis and will actively encourage existing staff to leave teaching in Guernsey.
The States must simply prioritise the pay award for teachers and lecturers, and commence meaningful negotiations without further delay with a substantial offer. Failure to do so will compound the belief that the employer does not value its leaders, teachers and lecturers, and raises the spectre of industrial action over pay.
We look forward to your urgent response.
Yours sincerely
Paul Whiteman, General Secretary, NAHT
Dr Mary Bousted , Joint General Secretary, NEU
Dr Patrick Roach Geoff Barton
General Secretary, NASUWT General Secretary, ASCL
First published 20 April 2022