Teaching Unions No Closer to Pension Deal
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December 1, 2011 TheFreshOutlook  |
Teaching union leaders and government officials are discussing pension reforms. Government said to have misjudged “mood and scale” of strikes.
Leaders of the teaching unions and government officials met today to try and make a deal about pensions.
The talks followed up an offer made by the government to the teaching unions last month.
NUT general secretary Christine Blower said that the reason for the meetings was so that the unions could make it “categorically clear that we have understood what the government is putting to us and to make sure that we have a coherent negotiation position”.
The new talks included an offer to protect any teachers retiring within the next decade from having the rate of their pension changed.
Prior to the talks, Christine Keats, the general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said that there had been progress because the Department for Education had agreed to put the details and the background calculations of the proposal made in early November on the table for union negotiators to consider.
However, she added that she did not think that the talks would result in a breakthrough. One of the problems she highlighted was that there was not an average teacher’s pension.
“The difficulty is there isn’t a typical teacher’s pension - some people have taken career breaks, some people are just starting out and others are closer to retirement,” she said.
Michael Gove, the education secretary, described the talks as “cordial and constructive”. However, a deal was not made. The unions now have to go away and work out how different teachers’ pensions will be affected.
Today’s talks were originally due to be held before the 24-hour strike that took place yesterday.
General secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, Russell Hobby, said that the government “misjudged the mood and scale” of yesterday’s protest that saw over a million people go on strike.
Although official figures yesterday for the amount of public sector workers striking stood at around 2 million, figures out today suggest the number of people striking was closer to 1.2 million.
Prime Minister David Cameron described yesterday’s strikes as “obviously a big strike” when being interviewed on ITV’s This Morning. Yesterday he had described them as “a damp squib”.
Unison, the UK’s largest public sector union, is considering bringing charges against Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson for a comment he made about the workers yesterday. They have called for the BBC to fire him.
Mr Clarkson said: “I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families. I mean, how dare they go on strike when they’ve got these gilt-edged pensions that are going to be guaranteed while the rest of us have to work for a living?”
He has formally apologised for the remarks.
Health service unions will hold similar talks with government officials tomorrow.
By Louisa Guise
[Image courtesy of Ben Sutherland]
