There is a renewed threat of pre-summer strike action as the row over the leaked STRB pay review continues.

The National Education Union (NEU) has threatened strikes in the week of July 3 should the School Teachers’ Review Body recommendations for September not be published and negotiations with unions not re-open.

In late May, a report in the Sunday Times claimed that the STRB has recommended a 6.5% pay rise for teachers from September in its annual report to the Department for Education (DfE).

The DfE does not normally publish the STRB report and its response until mid to late July and has refused so far to be drawn on the Sunday Times report.

However, tensions are heightened given that the leak comes during the on-going pay dispute between four education unions and the government – and at a time when negotiations have long since broken down.

The four unions – ASCL, NAHT, NEU, NASUWT – wrote to the DfE in May asking for confirmation of the 6.5% figure and whether the DfE would accept the STRB recommendation. At the time of writing, the unions have yet to receive a response.

Now, the NEU has upped the ante with a second letter to the DfE, warning that should their request be ignored and should negotiations not re-open by June 17 – this Saturday – the NEU will consider further strike action by teachers in England in the week of July 3.

The NEU’s current mandate for strike action expires on July 13, meaning it is free to call industrial action up until that date.

All four of the unions are currently balloting for strike action to take place from the autumn and have pledged to coordinate any strikes from September onwards.

The NASUWT ballot closes on July 10, the NEU ballot on July 28, and the NAHT and ASCL ballots both close on July 31.

In a statement on Friday (June 9), the NEU said: “Should this letter be ignored, and negotiations are not in place by June 17, the NEU National Executive will be discussing our next steps. This will include the consideration of NEU teacher members in England taking further strike action in the week beginning July 3.”

The letter itself states: “By not publishing the STRB report, your department is withholding vital information about what proposals that body has made on teacher pay, which may or may not help with the recruitment difficulties. It is also withholding vital information about the funding of pay rises. Fully funding pay rises, as you know, is essential given that school budgets are already stretched beyond reasonable limits.”

It is expected that the DfE will publish the STRB report in late July as has been the case in the last five years.

The letter added: “We consider this delay in giving vital information to headteachers to be disrespectful in the extreme. And we consider your failure to engage with the unions to discuss this year’s pay, the STRB report, workload and funding to be inexplicable.

“We are calling on you to publish the STRB report without further delay, and to meet us next week in an effort to resolve the dispute and help to solve the problems facing our children’s schools.

“If you refuse to do this, next steps – including the option of our teacher members in England taking further strike action in the week beginning July 3 – will be considered by the NEU National Executive at its meeting on June 17.”

Earlier this year, the DfE offered a 4.5% average pay rise from September as well as a £1,000 one-off cash payment this year. This was rejected by members of all four unions.

As a result, the DfE withdrew the £1,000 payment offer and said it would revert to the normal STRB process for deciding the September 2023 pay award.

Unions have been pushing for as much as 10% due to soaring inflation rates this year and the real-terms cuts to teachers’ pay, which equate to as much as 13% since 2010. Salaries for teachers on most pay grades are expected to fall by 5% in real-terms this year alone (Sibieta, 2023).