Extra £2m to boost teachers' pay rejected by States

Using money earmarked for government IT systems to increase teachers' pay was rejected

Jersey’s States Assembly has rejected calls for money earmarked for government IT systems to instead be used to increase teachers’ pay.

Reform Jersey Deputy Catherine Curtis had wanted £2m to be taken from the Cabinet Office’s 2024 budget.

But politicians voted 32-13 against the proposal.

The decision comes as members of the National Education Union (NEU) are staging a three day strike.

Members of the NEU were on strike whilst the proposal was up for debate

Some teachers watched the debate from the public gallery in the States Assembly, in addition to staging a rally in the Royal Square as politicians emerged for lunch.

In comments published ahead of the vote, Deputy Curtis, the chair of the Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel, said: “Teachers' pay has not kept pace with inflation, and the strikes have caused disruption to families across the island.

“An extra £2m of funding would be sufficient to fulfil the required uplift for teachers' pay, allowing normal service to resume in schools.”

'End term exhausted'

Speaking in the States Assembly in support of his Reform Jersey colleague’s proposed budget amendment, former teacher, Deputy Rob Ward said: “We are playing fast and loose with a profession here.

“These are the same teachers who worked throughout the Covid pandemic, that end every term exhausted from giving everything to children and schools they commit to every day, way beyond just the delivery of a curriculum.

"From buying equipment to buying food, to checking on their wellbeing to being a social worker, to being a carer to being that friend, to being that role model in their lives that says, ‘you can do more’.”

Adrian Moss, from the NEU, said: "We recognise that currently the RPI [Retail Prices Index] is quite high, but if that's not being matched then our members suffer a pay cut."

Politicians voted 32 against and 13 for Deputy Catherine Curtis' proposal

The government described teachers’ pay demands as “irresponsible” and “unreasonable”.

Speaking ahead of the debate, Deputy Elaine Millar, the vice-chair of the States Employment Board (SEB), said Deputy Curtis’ proposal “wouldn’t be fair to other public sector workers, it wouldn’t be fair to the taxpayers and we frankly just can’t afford it".

She said: “It would put public finances into the red and leave them there.

“We don’t want to put taxes up for everyone else.”

SEB member Deputy Philip Bailhache said it could not "negotiate sensibly with a gun held to its head".

He said: “Strikes should be halted so that sensible discussions can take place in a civilised atmosphere and I don’t think that this amendment does anything to bring forward that situation.”

Despite the vote, the government continues to offer the unions arbitration – a process which would see the dispute resolved externally.

In response to questions from the BBC, NEU senior regional officer Caryn Symons confirmed the union had ruled out going to arbitration, as its members would lose the right to negotiate.