Northern Ireland Protocol and DUP deal: Teaching unions call on Chris Heaton-Harris to release funding for pay rises

Along with other public sector unions, teaching unions have engaged in repeated strike action over recent months, in pursuit of pay parity with GB.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) called on Mr Heaton Harris to release the £600m now which he promised would be available when the DUP returns to Stormont to settle public sector pay disputes.

An INTO spokeswoman said: "At this point, there has been no move from the employers to negotiate any pay settlement, it would be therefore premature for the teacher unions to review the ongoing industrial action. Should talks begin, it may give a window of opportunity to pause planned strike action, however, action short of strike would continue.

“The amount that has been made available to settle the public sector pay dispute is close to £600m, which, given the length of time that public sector workers have been waiting to have their issues addressed, may not be enough. We would call on Chris Heaton Harris to release the funding available so that the employers can enter negotiations and a just pay settlement be agreed.”

Pauline Buchanan and Mark Langhammer, Joint-Regional Secretaries of the National Education Union, said: “NEU welcome progress towards re-establishing an Executive with sufficient funds to address outstanding fair-pay awards for the past three pay years. We will now work with alacrity within the teachers negotiation framework to finalise a pay proposal to put before our members by ballot.”

They added that progress has already been made with teaching management and that they expect that a fair award for teachers will be 'oven ready' on Day-One of the new Stormont ministers' tenure.

Jackie Bartley, president of school leaders' union in Northern Ireland (NAHTNI) also welcomed the DUP move to return to Stormont.

"We fully expect that the funding which should already be meeting the needs of Northern Ireland’s decimated public services will now be released by the Secretary of State with urgency,” she said.

Discussions between the department, employing authorities and the Northern Ireland Teachers’ Council (NITC) must be expedited in pursuit of a resolution to the ongoing dispute, she added.

The Ulster Teachers’ Union (UTU) gave a guarded welcome to news that the Stormont impasse looks set to be resolved.

“However, until we actually see the mechanisms in motion nerves understandably remain as to the resolution of the teachers’ pay claim,” said General Secretary Jacquie White.

The union, along with the four other main teaching unions in Northern Ireland, have a mandate for five days of strike action and have so far taken two with three remaining if needed.

“We have had not just two years of stalled government but a decade of under-funding in education which will require a committed will and determination to address when so much has been lost,” continued Ms White.

“Much remains to be done to confront the challenges schools here are facing, along with other public services.

“The tragedy is though so much time has been wasted and throughout all that time it is our children who’ve been paying the price.”