Commenting on the passing of Motion 32 at NEU Annual Conference in Brighton, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said:
"The supply sector is now a watchword for some of the worst examples of profiteering and corporate greed in education. We cannot accept a system in which public money is siphoned off by supply agencies – some of which are headquartered in tax havens – while supply educators are routinely paid a pittance for the vital work they do, without any access to sectoral pension schemes.
"There is a fair solution at hand and we will not hesitate to put pressure on the government as well as education employers to grasp it. The extension of national pay rates to all supply staff whatever their contractual status and the creation of supply pools at employer level would be precisely that solution. It would take only the stroke of a pen for the government to guarantee fair pay for supply educators and it is shameful that they have sought to prop up a failing private system. We will continue to campaign at every level for an end to the agency rip off, using our collective strength to win the creation of public alternatives that provide the pay and pension entitlements that supply educators deserve."