‘Some teachers struggle to pay for food and heating’
UNIONS have claimed that some teachers are struggling to pay for food, clothes and heating after enduring pay cuts going back 15 years.
They told a pay tribunal yesterday that their members were earning 10% less in real terms than they were in 2008 and appealed for a three-year wage deal to make up the difference.
‘Lower- to middle-ranking teachers are living in relative poverty in Guernsey. The States is relying on the passion and commitment of teachers to balance its books,’ said Advocate Michael Adkins on behalf of five education unions.
He asked the tribunal to read statements submitted by despairing teachers who he said were ‘pushed into punishing rental costs, shopping at charity shops, turning off the heating in winter [and] unable to afford food’.
Policy & Resources’ employment lead David Mahoney told the tribunal that every other public sector employee group had accepted its across-the-board pay offer until 2024 and reminded teachers that ‘everyone is able to leave if they don’t like it’.
He said teachers’ demands were unrealistic and accused unions of ‘an awful lot of bluster and a whole lot of hyperbole’.
He urged the tribunal to dismiss their ‘back of cigarette packet calculations and schoolboy maths’.
The pay dispute affects about 600 teachers and lecturers across all phases of education in the public sector.
Only one of their unions – the National Association of Head Teachers – has accepted P&R’s offer of an increase of 5% plus £500 for 2022, an increase of 7% in 2023 and an increase of 1% below the rate of inflation in 2024.
The remaining unions, representing about 95% of the workforce, said they wanted 2% more than the States was offering for 2022 and 2% above the rate of inflation in each of 2023 and 2024.
‘That would bring teachers in line with where they should have been if wages had kept up with inflation over the past 15 years,’ said Advocate Adkins.
‘They have been strung along by the employer and now the employer is seeking to impose a blanket pay offer.’
He said teachers’ wage demands were ‘modest, fair, reasonable and affordable’.
Deputy Mahoney said P&R had to work within financial constraints imposed by the States. He pointed to a deficit in public finances of more than £60m. in 2020, and a projected long-term deficit of up to £100m. a year.
‘A good award has been offered. Most pay groups were quick to accept.
‘NCTLG’s [teachers’] non-acceptance should be seen as unreasonable by comparison,’ he said.
The tribunal is chaired by Professor Roy Lewis and also includes Nicolla Tanguy from the employers’ panel and Jamie Roussel from the employees’ panel.
They adjourned proceedings just before 3pm yesterday and are expected to announce a binding settlement in the dispute today.
