School leaders in Wales are to be re-balloted in a bid to secure a fresh mandate for industrial action, which could include strike. In March, members of school leaders’ union NAHT Cymru voted to reject an offer from the Welsh Government covering both 2022/23 and 2023/24 in their ongoing dispute over pay, workload and funding.
The Welsh Government, nevertheless, awarded them a 1.5% pay rise and a one-off bonus for the current academic year, a deal which ended the teachers’ strike, but not the school leaders’ action. The row for school leaders in the NAHT has continued because it says despite government assurances the pay deal would be fully funded this has not happened “in many areas of the country”.
Some heads are already being forced to make cuts to their school budgets, including redundancies, because they are having to fund the pay rise, NAHT Cymru director Laura Doel said. Talks have taken place over recent weeks between NAHT, the Welsh Government and local government employers. But a breakthrough has so far proved elusive, with a promised review of funding for both school budgets and pay awards still being discussed and an agreement to reduce workload still not finalised, the NAHT said in a statement.
NAHT members have been taking action short of strike since January, when 95% of participants in a historic first ballot supported this option and 75%, also supported strike action. That mandate expires in July which is why a new ballot is now being run, with both the same options on the table again. The ballot begins on June 1
