The NEU annual pay progression survey has repeatedly shown disparities in pay progression rates for groups of members with protected characteristics.
Teachers who are pregnant or on maternity leave, disabled teachers and teachers from an ethnic minority background are more likely to be denied pay progression. Teachers who work part time, job share, or are contracted on any other flexible arrangement are more likely to be denied pay progression than their full-time counterparts. We know that this adversely impacts women as they are more likely to have such flexible arrangements due to caring and childcare responsibilities.
Collecting this data from your workplace will help you to establish where the disparities are at a local level.
This can be particularly useful in making the case for automatic pay progression, including the removal of onerous threshold application processes.
Your branch secretary or the NEU officer or lead rep negotiating with your employer may already have requested this data, so it is worth liaising with them first before making a data request.
Requesting pay progression data for your school
There is a model template letter that you can use to make your request.
In the model letters, we remind the employer of their public sector equality duty in accordance with the Equality Act 2010, namely, to monitor and assess the impact of its school’s pay policy on employees by reference to their protected characteristics.
We also advise them to comply with the DfE’s advice to monitor pay decisions to identify any concerning patterns that emerge, such as a disproportionately higher number of men than women receiving progression, or higher rates of progression.
When making the request to your head teacher, reps should use the template letter, stating that they are making the request in accordance with section 181 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, which entitles us, as a recognised trade union, to receive the information for collective bargaining purposes.
When should the request be sent out?
Requests for pay progression data should be sent out at the beginning of the school term in September. You should request for the information to be provided no later than December 31.
What information should you be asking the employer to provide?
With the initial request letter, you should also send the template excel spreadsheet. This worksheet has been designed for the employer’s convenience and will make it easy for you to compile and analyse the information.
The information covers:
- The number of teachers eligible to be assessed for pay progression in September (of the current academic year).
- The number of teachers who received pay progression, were denied progression, or where relevant, did not apply for progression.
- Breakdowns by pay range point, sector of school and personal characteristics, such as gender, ethnicity, full/part-time status, maternity leave etc.
The data will not allow individuals to be identified personally.
What should you look for in the data?
You should pay careful attention to the calculation of progression rates, i.e. the percentage of eligible teachers who received pay progression. It is the practice of some academy trusts to subtract those teachers who chose not to apply for threshold from the total number of teachers eligible for progression. This approach invariably produces a higher overall progression rate, which doesn’t accurately reflect the true number of teachers that have received progression.
Teachers eligible for progression from the main to the upper pay range but do not apply to do so, are just as ‘eligible’ for pay progression as any other teacher and should therefore not be excluded from the calculation of pay progression rates.
Rates of pay progression by gender and other protected characteristics is very important for all the reasons stated above. This data will help you organise members effectively and challenge your school’s pay policy.
How can you use the data?
Collecting pay scale and pay progression data will help you to organise members around the discriminatory nature of performance related pay (PRP), build an argument around the slow erosion of pay ranges and the negative impact this has had on recruitment and retention.
This data will also help you to identify key issues to look out for in the employer’s pay policy, such as threshold application, what is required of teachers on the upper pay range, the TLR structure, how pay decisions are made, whether the policy reflects the school teachers’ pay and conditions document (STPCD) etc.
Overall, progression rates will help you to make a comparison with pay in previous years and initiate reflection and discussion with the employer.
You may also be aware of pay progression rates of similar employers locally or nationally – if these are superior to the rates offered by the employer with whom you are negotiating, this can be used as leverage in a bargaining context.
You should seek to network with other reps in your branch and/or MAT with a view to comparing pay progression data and coordinating collective action.
