Friday 1 July 2022 10:09 AM Nadhim Zahawi offers teachers NINE per cent pay rise in desperate bid to see ... trends now

Nadhim Zahawi has blinked and bowed down to militant teaching unions by offering them a whopping 9% pay rise in a desperate bid to see off strike action in the autumn.

The Education Secretary has appeared to back away from his position last week that striking would be 'unforgivable' by begging Rishi Sunak to bankroll a wage hike for 130,000 junior teachers in England.

But Mary Bousted, the general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said it was 'not enough, it is still a pay cut'. She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'If we don't receive a very much better offer we will be looking to ballot our members in October.'

The union leader added that even under a 'best case scenario' that less than half of the new teachers Britain needs would start training this September.

It came after the NEU threatened industrial action if the Government did not increase its offer for most teachers. The NASUWT teachers' union has also threatened that it would ballot members for industrial action in November if the pay rise this year is less than 12%.

Education SecretaryNadhim Zahawi addressing the Local Government Association Annual Conference, at Harrogate Convention Centre, North Yorkshire yesterday

Mary Bousted, General Secretary of the NEU, on ITV's Peston show on June 22, 2022

Pupils face new results chaos in exams strike after country's largest board of testers voted in favour of strikes

A-level and GCSE results could be delayed this summer after staff at the country’s largest exam board AQA voted in favour of strikes.

If grades are delayed pupils may have to call universities to beg for their place to be held or risk losing it.

Unison, which represents around 160 of the 1,200 staff at AQA, said the strike was backed by 71%. A turnout threshold of 50%, needed to win ballots for strike action, was also reached.

Many more AQA staff in the Unite union are also considering a strike.

Unison regional organiser Lizanne Devonport said: 'Staff have demonstrated they're clearly unhappy with the way they're being treated.'

AQA said pay rises would actually average 5.6% and were 'higher than many organisations'.

It came as Royal Mail managers and more rail workers also voted to strike.

TSSA members at Avanti West Coast voted in favour of walkouts by 86% on a turnout of 66%. No strike dates have been set in the pay dispute.

Unite said it would announce strike dates in the Royal Mail managers dispute in the coming days. It said the firm plans to cut 542 delivery managers' jobs.

Last week, Mr Zahawi said that teaching unions taking strike action after the disruption students faced in the pandemic would be 'unforgivable' and 'unfair'.

In March, the Education Secretary said that the unions should 'show restraint' by accepting 3%.

But

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