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Stop performance-related pay
NEU members at three schools in the north-east London borough of Waltham Forest are taking six days of strike action, alongside several other schools in London.
Waltham Forest NEU demands the removal of performance-related pay (PRP), due to it being subjective and discriminatory, and contributing to increased workload.
Following the national strikes in 2023, a ‘workload reduction taskforce’ was set up by the Department for Education under the Tory government, which recommended the removal of PRP by the 2024-25 academic year. But despite the national NEU praising the new Labour government for “honouring this commitment”, the Labour council in Waltham Forest retains PRP in its model pay policy.
A striker at Leytonstone School explained:
- “It’s possible for headteachers to subjectively decide when someone’s pay goes up. If you do your job but you don’t document the right things according to some arbitrary targets, you might not get your pay progression. Often schools will try to hold your pay back.
- “PRP doesn’t measure the quality of education, it measures the exterior appearance to management. Good teaching can’t be measured by someone coming into a classroom maybe twice a year and seeing a few things. Teachers could still be accountable for their performance, but through the way the school collaborates and supports them. There’s nothing better than experience. We know that good teachers are experienced teachers.”
Joint NEU Waltham Forest secretary Mallainee Martin spoke to the Socialist on the Willowfield picket line and explained the wider issues.
- “In Waltham Forest we get outer-London pay levels. But we are surrounded by boroughs that get higher inner-London pay. Improving policies and reducing workload is incredibly important for retaining teachers in the borough when there are opportunities so close to receive higher pay and possibly less workload.”
- “We face all the issues that inner-London schools face. In fact, pressures on kids like crime and other socioeconomic challenges are really high in this borough.
- “Parents who attended the picket informed us about communication sent to parents [by the school management]. It is a shame that selectively quoting from the code of practice on picketing was used as an attempt to dissuade parents from attending and being able to get educator perspectives on why they were striking.
- “Pay is only one of the issues that NEU members were balloted over. In this school, unacceptable management style was also on the ballot, and I personally believe that the communication to parents has provided insight on this issue.”