Teacher union's pay strike threat

The proposals will see school staffing structures overhauled

A teaching union says its members may strike in individual schools in Wales over a planned wages shake-up.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) claims many teachers face a "permanent pay cut" under a review of staffing.

Teachers' pay and conditions remain under UK government control, even though education in Wales is devolved.

The Department for Education and Skills said the changes would make schools more flexible, and reward teachers taking on important extra duties.

The responsibilities are still there. The work that teachers need to do there is still there Gethin Lewis, NUT Cymru

Schools in England and Wales were told last summer to overhaul their staffing structures, which in some cases will mean teachers lose money as "management allowances" are scrapped.

Instead extra payments will focus on teaching roles, but staff may have to compete with colleagues for these - and they are not guaranteed to get the money.

The management allowances range from £1,638 to £10,572, but a study found little consistency in how these were paid.

Extra term

Sometimes the money was used to recruit or retain teachers, and it was often paid for administrative rather than management responsibilities.

The allowances will be replaced by teaching and learning responsibility (TLR) payments. They will be payable at two levels - from £2,250 to £5,500 and from £6,500 to £11,000.

The Secondary Heads' Association has welcomed the change as an opportunity to overhaul staffing structures and to focus extra payments on teaching.

But NUT Cymru secretary Gethin Lewis said the new system was "fraught with dangers", and many teachers would lose money.

"The responsibilities are still there. The work that teachers need to do there is still there," said Mr Lewis.

The pay changes mean that heads and governors have the flexibility they need to structure their schools as they see fit Department for Education

"But there won't be enough of the funding. So we are afraid that teachers will lose their management allowances but they won't get the new TLRs and that's where the union is saying we will have strike ballots if our members are losing pay."

However, the union has welcomed the extra term that schools in Wales will have to carry out the review. The deadline in Wales is the end of March 2006, compared with December 2005 in England.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: "The pay changes mean that heads and governors have the flexibility they need to structure their schools as they see fit, to make best use of teachers' expertise and reward those taking on significant additional responsibilities, in an open and fair way - which has often not been the case in the past.

"We have ensured that existing allowances will be safeguarded for up to three years - this was agreed with five unions and the employers' association."

The Welsh Assembly Government said: "Teachers' pay and conditions of service are not devolved to the National Assembly for Wales and decisions for both Wales and England are the responsibility of the Department for Education and Skills."