Teaching staff to receive pay increase

Teaching staff in Jersey will now receive an additional pay increase through a gainshare agreement.

Negotiations between trades union representatives and government officials have agreed a way of funding an additional 0.8% pay for teaching staff, including teaching assistants, from 1 January 2020.

The additional pay is part of the negotiated pay settlement, agreed by unions and the States Employment Board earlier this year, and will be funded from the Education budget through reforms and efficiencies.

In addition, following a ballot of teaching assistant union members, a new pay framework for teaching assistants has been agreed. Representatives from the NASUWT, NEU Prospect and Unite endorsed the new pay scale, which better aligns teaching assistants with the teachers they work alongside, and enables career progression so that teaching assistants can become teachers.

The acceptance of the new teaching assistants’ framework means that those employees will now receive a salary increase, in line with teachers, of 4.8%, which represents RPI plus 1.3% and the 0.8%.

Constable Richard Buchanan said: "I'm pleased we have reached an agreement with teaching and civil service unions that will benefit teachers, teaching assistants and the government. We can now move forward together in 2020 to find ways to improve our processes and allow teachers and teaching assistants to share the savings we identify."