More teachers denied pay progression, survey shows

More teachers are being refused a pay rise because of the government’s performance related pay (PRP) system, according to a new survey

The research carried out by the NUT and ATL teacher unions show that more teachers had been denied pay progression in 2016 than in 2015, with one in five (21 per cent) of teachers being refused in comparison to last year’s 19 per cent.

The survey of 13,000 teachers was carried out in December for the current school year starting in September 2016 and is the largest survey on pay progression.

It showed that by December 2016, about a quarter of teachers were still waiting to hear if they would be given a pay boost for the current school year and many of them said they did not know when they would find out.

Fifteen per cent said they had been told that they were not receiving the boost because of funding and budget constrains, opposed to performance.

Data also suggests that teachers in academies were more likely to be denied pay progression and rates of non-progression were higher for part time teachers (38 per cent) than for full-time (18 per cent).

In addition to this, more than half of women teachers absent on maternity leave during the year who were eligible for progression had been turned down and those from minority ethnic backgrounds were shown to have been more likely to be denied progression than others.

Nearly 90 per cent of respondents said they had no warning that they might not progress and almost 90 per cent thought that their pay progression decision was unfair.

More than a third of participants claimed that the school did not have a written policy setting out properly how pay progression works and the same number found that their school’s policy on this matter was unfair.

ATL general secretary, Mary Bousted, said: “ATL and NUT members clearly believe that linking pay and performance is not fair for teachers or pupils.

“School leaders and teachers are having to spend far too much valuable teaching and learning time on paperwork and admin to decide pay awards.

She continued: “Performance related pay is threatening collegiate working in schools, demoralising teachers who feel they have been unfairly treated and undermining the valuable contribution that performance appraisal can, and should, make to improving teaching - and pupils will lose out as a result.”

NUT general secretary, Kevin Courtney, added: “The NUT/ATL survey again proves that PRP is not about rewarding good work but is about unfairly denying pay rises to manage declining budgets - in ways that are clearly discriminating in many cases.

“The uncertainty about pay progression is putting many graduates off entering teaching or staying in teaching, and the funding crisis is clearly denying many teachers the progression that they are due. We need to remove this discredited and discriminatory pay system now.”