'Model' union votes for strike

Britain's second-largest teachers' union voted for strike action yesterday – just 24 hours after being praised by Charles Clarke, the Secretary of State for Education, for being the model example of a modern trade union.

Delegates at the conference of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) in Bournemouth backed industrial action, including strikes, if ministers tried to limit the number of senior staff eligible for performance-related rises.

The union shed its moderate image – and the "constructive" attitude lauded by Mr Clarke – to back action if the Government introduced new criteria to limit the number of experienced teachers allowed to move up a new pay scale with a top salary of £35,000.

The first teachers to qualify for performance-related bonuses received £2,000 in September 2000 and moved on to a new pay scale promising two-yearly merit rises. The next rise is due in September 2004 but delegates fear that ministers want to limit the number of payments.

They accused ministers of preparing to break their promises to award the rises to all eligible staff who were judged to make a "substantial and sustained" contribution to their schools. John Hemingway, a union official from Birmingham, said: "We are already hearing about additional criteria being hinted at. If industrial action is needed, so be it."

Roger Kirk, a member of the union's national executive, reminded delegates that David Blunkett, who introduced the scheme during his time as Secretary of State for Education, had promised that all teachers who met the criteria published before the 2001 election could reach the top of the pay scale.

"We believe that even today there are people in the Department for Education and Skills who are trying to frustrate the will of David Blunkett. We've had Gordon Brown who wanted blatant performance-related pay and the Number 10 policy unit which wanted blatant performance-related pay.

"We've got to remember that's in everybody's interest to defend it," he said.