New teachers to find out today if their pay will be cut

Wednesday 28 September 2016

States members clashed yesterday over plans to slash £8,000 from the pay of newly qualified teachers from 2018.

The cuts are part of the Ministers' Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) which are designed to save the States millions of pounds before 2019.

Politicians argued for and against the cuts, with ministers accused of letting down the teaching profession if the MTFP is not amended as it would mean a large drop in salary for new teachers. 

But Sir Philip Bailhache said the cuts made sense, as new teachers are, by comparison, well paid in Jersey.

He said: “It is important to reiterate that it is a misnomer to talk of reducing teachers’ salary. Not a single teachers’ salary will be reduced. The new arrangement would only apply in 2018 and would only apply to new recruits. 

 “The figures set out by the Ministers are overwhelming in their starkness. A newly appointed teacher in England and Wales is paid £22,467, in inner London that figure is £28,098. In Guernsey, our neighbour, £29,247, but in Jersey £38, 296. The disparity is extraordinary. Is there any advantage the Island gets from essentially over-paying newly appointed teachers? It doesn’t seem to me that there is because the education department tells us they have no difficulty in recruiting primary school teachers. 

“The advantage of paying the proper rate for the job instead of over-paying newly appointed teachers is that money would be released and could be applied to encourage recruitment in areas where there is difficulty in recruitment, for instance in secondary schools in the science subjects. 

“I hope members will reject this amendment.” 

But Deputy Montfort Tadier was having none of it, describing the proposed cuts as “scathing.”

“The justification the Council of Ministers give for their scathing cuts to public services is that they can spend the money on education and health. Somehow that seems to justify it. It is OK if a young family finds themselves impoverished because we are giving with one hand and taking away with the other. We are being told we are investing in education but in real terms there is no new money going into education. Its simply making savings which will have an impact on the education of our children.

“How can we make savings if those savings have not been negotiated with the unions? 

“It is disingenuous to say we are not reducing the pay of any teachers, because this is exactly what we did with the pensioners. We are affecting new entrants into that scheme.

“Teachers are not in it for themselves but most go in it for a vocation. Teachers could make lots more money by going into other professions, but they choose not to do so.

“It is difficult to make comparisons as a teacher and one has to remember the extra hours teachers do.”

Deputy Geoff Southern said: "If members vote to accept the cuts of £250,000 in 2018 and £500,000 in 2019 it will be an instruction from this house that collective bargaining with the unions does not exist. 

He said: “I don’t believe anyone in this house should vote that way, but if they do, that is exactly what they are doing. That would be a thoroughly retrograde act, to abandon collective bargaining with our unions.”

A vote will be taken today on the amendment to teachers' pay.