No sign of a breakthrough on pay for Northern Ireland teachers as industrial action continues, NASUWT official says

Teachers from all five of the recognised unions are now engaged in industrial action short of a strike in a dispute over pay and conditions.

And it has emerged that around 300 substitute teachers have yet to be paid for work done in September following the roll-out of a new payment system, with calls growing for the Education Minister Michelle McIlveen to intervene.

Justin McCamphill, national official for Northern Ireland with the NASUWT trade union, said: "The cost-of-living crisis is impacting teachers across Northern Ireland but the impact has been worse on our supply teachers who not only do not have guaranteed work, but it appears they no longer have guaranteed pay for that work.

"Fixing this issue and paying these teachers before the end of the week must be the number one priority for the Minister, the Department and the Education Authority."

He added: "The NASUWT have been warning for weeks that we were heading for disaster again this month and that the Minister needed to give an assurance that all supply teachers would be paid for all the work that they carried out during August and September. This assurance never came.

"This morning hundreds of teachers have checked their bank accounts and found that they haven’t been paid."

Asked by the News Letter for an update on the ongoing industrial action, Mr McCamphill said: "At this point all five unions are now on industrial action, and we are co-ordinating that as much as possible. There hasn't been enough progress yet in relation to pay, and there doesn't appear to be anything at this point that would have us coming off that industrial action.

"There are talks happening, yes, but obviously with the Executive the way it is we are probably quite far off actually getting a resolution."

The News Letter has invited the Department of Education to respond to the NASUWT’s concerns around the failure to pay substitute teachers for their work.