The justice secretary has faced multiple formal complaints over his dealings with civil servants
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) has said it will hold a formal ballot for national strike action in England for the first time in its history “over the school funding crisis, the erosion of teacher and leader pay and conditions, and consequent staff shortages which are undermining the education system”.
The union’s executive committee of senior elected members met yesterday afternoon and unanimously decided to move to a formal ballot on strike action, PA Media reports.
ASCL has never before formally balloted at a national level and this is clearly a very significant step. The fact that we have reached this point reflects the desperate situation regarding inadequate funding, long-term pay erosion, teacher shortages, and the intransigence of a government which we can only conclude does not value the education workforce or recognise the severe pressures facing the sector.
We have made every effort to resolve this matter through negotiations prior to reaching this point. Unfortunately, the government’s offer has failed to sufficiently address pay and conditions, and, critically, did not provide enough funding for even the meagre proposal it put forward. Following the rejection of the offer by all education unions involved – ASCL, NAHT, NEU and NASUWT – the government has made no effort to reopen negotiations and has said only that the issue of pay will now revert to the school teachers’ review body.
Speaking to senior folk in government privately, most assume that Mr Raab – who is also justice secretary – is “toast” as one figure put it to me.
“The breadth of this, the number of people complaining, surely he can’t survive?” said another.
