Crunch teacher offer to be made today

Monday 10 June 2019

Jersey teachers are today set to be made an offer that could finally bring an end to the months-long dispute over pay.

The National Education Union (NEU) said that talks that concluded on Thursday evening last week with the States Employment Board – the group responsible for setting public sector workers’ pay – had resulted in an agreement “in principle”.

Officials added that they now expected to receive an offer today (Monday 10 June), which they will then discuss with union members in a meeting at 19:00 at the Freedom Church in St. Helier.

This apparent ‘breakthrough’ comes following eight days of strikes last month by NEU members, which resulted in widespread school closures, over the government’s failure to hand teachers a pay rise in line with rises in the cost of living locally.

Pictured: The months-long dispute led to school closures due to striking teachers.

NASUWT – the island’s other teaching union – took action short of striking, which included refusing to cover lessons. They are yet to speak out about any new deal.

Last week, details of a new offer were released, which included a proposed ‘share’ of any savings made by the Education Department. According to Express’ calculations, this could amount to an extra £37 per month for each teacher.

However, it wasn’t well-received at a teachers’ meeting, leading to talk of further strikes.

It remains unclear at this stage what updates, if any, will be made to that offer.

Ian Stevenson NEU Regional Secretary, said on Friday that he believed the offer agreed “in principle” could lead to “the dispute with the NEU being resolved.”

 “There has considerable progress made during the talks this week and there is every opportunity for a settlement to be reached. NEU members will therefore meet on Monday evening to decide whether this is an offer they can accept and therefore if these are terms that will bring this dispute to an end,” he added.