Teacher unions fall out over tactics

Disunion: disagreement over suspending action

Teachers' unions are to continue with industrial action against staff shortages, but the two unions involved are disagreeing on how the dispute should be resolved.

The National Union of Teachers says that the government has not offered enough to suspend the action, which so far has seen a handful of schools sending home pupils because of a lack of staff.

I am surprised and puzzled with the NUT decision

Nigel de Gruchy, NASUWT

And the union has cancelled an executive meeting scheduled for Wednesday to discuss lifting the action in which members are refusing to provide long-term cover for vacancies.

But the National Union of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, which wants to suspend the protest, has expressed its unhappiness with this decision.

"I am surprised and puzzled with the NUT decision. I will be writing to Doug McAvoy to seek clarification," said the NASUWT's general secretary Nigel de Gruchy. But he says in the meantime he will continue supporting the joint action.

Lack of movement

On Monday, the NASUWT said that it was willing to suspend its action and that it hoped the NUT would "reach a decision in the next few days".

The government says it will enter talks with the unions once the industrial action has been suspended - and the NASUWT has said that "the sooner we start talking the better".

But Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the NUT, says there has been insufficient movement from government and employers to warrant a suspension of the protest.

And the NUT says it wants to ensure that the proposal that teachers providing cover should receive extra payments would not mean "overtime payments for a minority of teachers whilst worsening conditions of service of all teachers".