Teachers question whether they will have the energy to carry on teaching beyond the age of 65 A teachers’ union is to vote on whether to hold a strike ballot in a campaign against pension changes.
The Association of Teachers and Lecturers, which has never held a national strike before, is to vote on Tuesday on calls for a walk-out.
The union’s leader, Mary Bousted, has warned changes mean teachers face cuts to their pensions and bigger premiums.
A spokesman for the Department for Education said that any changes would be “affordable, sustainable and fair”.
The ATL union, meeting for its annual conference in Liverpool, will hear calls for industrial action to be taken against proposed changes to public sector pensions.
Any strike action, likely to be a one-day strike held next term, would be designed to “encourage the government to negotiate more flexibly”.
ATL leader, Mary Bousted, says pension changes will be damaging for teachers The ATL is seen as a moderate teachers’ organisation – so a call for strike action would suggest strong feelings among teachers over threatened reductions in their pension benefits.
Union delegates will be invited to condemn the proposed changes to the teachers’ pension scheme.
The strike ballot motion says the changes will include raising the retirement age to 68 and the replacement of the final salary scheme with a career average scheme, which would mean a lower pension for many teachers.
The union says that the proposed public sector pension changes would see teachers on average losing 25% of the value of their pension.
Mary Bousted, the ATL’s general secretary, has previously questioned whether teachers required to work another three years would still feel that they had the energy to control a class of teenagers or young children.
If the strike ballot motion is accepted by the conference, the executive committee will meet later on Tuesday to make a decision about any strike action.
A spokesman for the Department for Education said that changes to public sector pensions reflected the changing demographics.
“Lord Hutton has made it clear that change is needed. People are living longer – in the early 1970s life expectancy of a 60 year old was around 18 years, now it is around 28 years.
“This has meant that the value of public service pensions has increased, with most of these costs falling to employers and taxpayers.
“The government has accepted Lord Hutton’s recommendations as a basis for consultation with public sector workers and will set out proposals in the autumn that are affordable, sustainable, and fair to both the public sector workforce and taxpayers.”
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