Teachers and doctors are threatening a fresh round of strikes despite receiving above-inflation pay rises. Ministers announced both professions would receive salary increases of 4%, while other NHS workers including nurses and midwives will get a 3.6% raise. But the British Medical Association, which represents doctors, said this does not go far enough to restore salary levels following freezes in the past, and it will begin balloting members on industrial action on Tuesday.
Meanwhile the National Education Union (NEU), the largest union for teachers, threatened to “register a dispute” with the Government because the Department for Education is refusing to provide enough new funding to cover the pay rise, meaning schools will have to find some of the money by making cuts elsewhere. It follows warnings that heads are already being forced to impose redundancies due to budget shortfalls.
Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott said Labour was “leaving schools £400 million in the red”.
She said: “Labour pledged they would hire 6,500 more teachers, but this funding shortfall today will leave 6,500 teachers’ jobs at risk. Schools, teachers, and children deserve better. Labour must end this education vandalism.”
NEU General Secretary Daniel Kebede said the unfunded pay rise would result in “cuts in service provision to children and young people, job losses, and additional workloads for an already overstretched profession”.
He added: “Unless the Government commit to fully funding the pay rise then it is likely that the NEU will register a dispute with the Government on the issue of funding, and campaign to ensure every parent understands the impact of a cut in the money available to schools, and that every politician understands this too.”
Threats of strike action cast doubt on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s claim that Labour has “ended the national strikes that have crippled our country for years”.
The increases, following recommendations by pay review bodies, are above the rate of inflation, which jumped to 3.5% in April, up from 2.6% in March and the highest since January 2024.
But Professor Philip Banfield, the BMA’s chairman of council, said: “Doctors’ pay is still around a quarter less than it was in real terms 16 years ago and today’s ‘award’ delays pay restoration even more, without a Government plan or reassurance to correct this erosion of what a doctor is worth.”
Royal College of Nursing general secretary and chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger warned the pay award was “entirely swallowed up by inflation and does nothing to change the status quo – where nursing is not valued, too few enter it and too many quit”.
Elsewhere, most members of the armed forces will be given a 4.5% pay rise, according to Defence Secretary John Healey, while senior members of the military will receive a 3.75% rise.
Senior civil servants will get a 3.25% pay rise, according to the Cabinet Office, but ministers plan to defer rolling out new pay bands as part of a review of salaries among the upper echelons of the Civil Service.
Prison officers and managers are also set to get a 4% pay rise, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said.
Judicial office holders, a group which includes judges, will also get a 4% pay rise, after Ms Mahmood rejected a recommendation their pay should rise by 4.75%.