Striking teachers could be forced to keep schools open when they take industrial action under plans for minimum service levels due to be unveiled by ministers today
Teachers will be forced to keep schools open while they take strike action to help under-pressure parents under plans to be unveiled today.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan is due to announce a consultation on ‘minimum service levels’ that would limit the impact of industrial action.
It comes after a year of walkouts by teachers over pay and conditions that have closed schools across the UK.
A report in August revealed in August that nearly four million working days had been lost to strikes in the previous 12 months – the highest total since the 1980, with walkouts from teachers, doctors, train drivers and postmen.
Though much of the action has now been settled, ministers have pushed on with plan to limit the impact of any future strikes.
But the minimum service move is facing strong pushback from unions, who were in talks with the Department for Education which ended without agreement. They say the consultation will run for just none weeks, including the Christmas break.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan is due to announce a consultation on ‘minimum service levels’ that would limit the impact of industrial action.
It comes after a year of walkouts by teachers over pay and conditions that have closed schools across the UK.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said the MSL move would ’cause further disruption in schools’.
‘The attempt to impose further restrictions on our democratic freedoms is shameful. This Government wants to be tough on strikes, but not on the causes of strikes,’ he said.
‘We have an education system on its knees. A deep recruitment and retention crisis, rocketing workloads and falling pay. And thanks to underfunding we have the largest primary class sizes in Europe and secondary class sizes are the highest since records began more than forty years ago. This is clearly unsustainable, but the Government is indifferent to the enormous challenges facing schools and colleges. On the evidence of last week’s Autumn Statement, they have given up.
‘The attempt at dialogue was never meaningful. It was disingenuous and cynical. The end of talks was briefed out to the press by Number 10 before the talks ended. Sunak always intended to implement this draconian legislation without consent or mandate.’
The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act gained royal assent in July.
Moves are underway already to introduce terms for maintaining services in the NHS and on the railways.
Ms Keegan is expected to unveil the plans in a written statement to MPs later.
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