Nutshells #70 July 07

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THE 70TH EDITION FOR ALL PLYMOUTH TEACHERS JULY 2007

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PAY SPECIAL

IT’S BALLS! Ed Balls MP has been appointed to the new department for schools, children and the family. An MP since 2005 he was a close aide to Gordon Brown when at the Treasury. Mr Balls is a member of the TGWU, UNISON and the Co-operative Party. He is married to Yvette Cooper MP and has three children. Outside work Mr Balls interests include music, cooking and playing football with his children.

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Inflation now 4.5% • Mortgage interest rates up 20% in 12 months and rising... • Council Tax up at least 5% • House prices up 11% • Petrol near £1 a litre [£4=50 a gallon] • Water up at least 12% • Pension contribution up from Jan 2007

PAY If you believe your salary and that of your co-workers is too high and needs to be cut back—do nothing. “You can’t value public servants if you cut their pay”

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NQT’s pay cut by £724 in the last 3 years • UPS3 teacher’s pay cut by £1236 • If inflation stays around 4% you’ll lose another £3000 in the next 3 years • Private sector pay up 4½% last year • Non-teacher graduate pay rises by over 50% after 3 years • We will be stuck with 2½%, 2%, 2% and 2% until 2010 if you do nothing

Independent of Government and not affiliated to any political party

PAY CUT BY £35 EVERY MONTH… If there was no inflation, our pay could stay the same year on year and it wouldn’t lose its buying power. The situation we have now [assuming there was no inflation], sees our pay being continuously reduced. Would teachers notice £35 being lopped off each month and do nothing about it?

Anyone who is still in receipt of management allowances has not had a rise in the allowance since April 2003. From January 2007, we are all paying an extra 0.4% towards our pensions, cutting our rise from last September down to effectively 2.1%. Teachers begin their career earning 10% less than other graduates. After 5 years in the job, the gap has widened to more than 20%. This is in an era when far more jobs have graduate status.

Last week’s TES SURVEY found that pay is now the number one issue for teachers in England & Wales.

Making Public Sector Workers Pay In the public sector, the Government is seeking to impose a limit of 2% in order to make public sector workers pay for rising inflation. That is why the NUT is campaigning together with other public sector unions for a fair pay increase of all public sector workers. Other public sector workers who, like teachers, face real terms pay cuts include: ♦ Nurses – a recommended pay award of 2.5% for nurses was staged in order to reduce its value over the year to 1.9%, except in Scotland where the 2.5% has been paid in full. ♦ Doctors – hospital doctors received as little as 1%, with any increases of more than 1.5% staged, and there was no pay increase for GPs. ♦ Local government workers – their employers have offered only 2% in negotiations for the 1.3 million workers in local government services.

A 2½% pay rise this year and 2% for the following 3 years when inflation is currently 4.5% is a pay cut in anyone’s language. Do you deserve it?

Your standard of living is falling and will continue to fall unless you do Regional Pay Across the public sector, the Government has tried to argue that something about it increases due to incremental progression should be brought into the pay equation, which would reduce the percentage increase in pay scales. The threat of regional pay is also still alive, with some civil service departments seeking to introduce regional pay proposals which threaten national pay scales and seek specifically to reduce pay in the North of England and Wales.

Private Sector Solution? The private sector response to rising inflation, on the other hand, has not been to limit pay rises and impose real terms pay cuts. The annual rate of increase in average earnings across the whole economy was 4.6% as at February 2007. Forecasters say that in the second half of 2007 average earnings increases will continue above 4 per cent.

Do you support Steve Sinnott’s call for a 10% pay rise or £3 000 for all teachers to redress the shortfall over the past 3 years and inflation over the next three?

“Boom and Bust” was the old way our pay was determined—when it lost its value a big campaign had to be launched with much government hand-wringing to grudgingly allow teachers’ pay to recover the losses—looks like we’re going to suffer this again...unless we do something to restore its value before it falls even further. A decent living wage means the ability to buy a home… or do you believe teachers [rather than other graduate professionals] should be excluded from home ownership?

“We need a union not in partnership with government but in partnership with teachers”

TRUST SCHOOL “CONSULTATION” ENDS The final round of so-called consultation ended on 6th July. Widewell Primary School has followed the pattern of other potential trust schools by choosing to ignore a staff ballot that was overwhelmingly against and refusing to pass information critical of the proposals to parents and carers. The detailed critique provided by Plymouth NUT was overlooked. The fact that all teacher unions oppose trust schools and believe them to be an instrument of privatisation with the potential for the casualisation of staff employment, has not been addressed. Parents have been refused the opportunity to ballot. Once the final decision is made—by the school governors alone—the buildings and land will transfer over to their ownership and be lost to the community. Decisions in the school will be influenced by the trust “partner” - a company called Dyslexia Action which also has a parallel charity using the same name. The school’s documentation has been silent on any possible financial exchanges between this organisation and the school.

Crazy about work? “Tiredness Can Kill Take a Break” John Illingworth will speak to Plymouth teachers on October 17th about the mental health of the profession. This meeting will be open to all

WORKLOAD...WORKLOAD...WORKLOAD… We now know that the so-called workload agreement has failed to reduce our workload. Even with at least 10% PPA time teachers are in many cases working for longer and teaching more. A few have seen a reduction measured only in minutes. What has been the cost of all this? The 3 year “pay deal” is a consequence...time for some professional unity...

A member writes, “Do I have to set work for my TA to deliver when I have PPA time?” Answer: NO—it’s about workload reduction...

“Unity in action at workplace level can really work” Plymouth Division: [email protected] 01503 240527 Regional Office: [email protected],uk 01392 258028