Following the statement of Sir Jeffrey Donaldson early this morning, Pauline Buchanan and Mark Langhammer, Joint-Regional Secretaries of the National Education Union, commented:
“NEU welcome progress towards re-establishing an Executive with sufficient funds to address outstanding fair-pay awards for the past three pay years. We will now work with alacrity within the teachers negotiation framework to finalise a pay proposal to put before our members by ballot.”
Clearly, the full texts – including the terms of the legislation - have yet to emerge and there will be some-way to travel before the Executive is reformed and Ministers are in place. However, progress has been made in the interim, within the Teachers Negotiating Committee, in addressing the ‘pay-gap that has emerged over the past three pay-rounds. We expect that engagement within the TNC will intensify in the days and weeks ahead with a view to conducting an electronic ballot of members on a reasonable final offer. We expect this work to be done in parallel with the political process so that a fair award for teachers is “oven ready” on Day-One of the new Ministers tenure.