Its not just the greedy nurses who are lying about how they all need food banks to survive and who are thus demanding a big hike to a package which is already massively greater than the UK median wage. Across the public sector they are all at it. I have highlighted before the greed and mendacity of the teachers, but in 2022 the lazy scumbags are telling porkies as never before. Meet Louise Atkinson who when not working hard and getting a good screw from being a Labour councillor in Carlisle is a teacher. Heaven help her students.
Louise is also on the regional TUC executive and might get a bit of a financial screw there but she still makes claims about life as a teacher as you can see below. It took her 8 years to train as a teacher? Really? Does she have the IQ of a maggot? A PGCE which you and I would need to train as a teacher can be completed in 1 year if done full time, two years if done part time. Eight years? Louise is taking the piss.
Has Louise’s pay really fallen by 20% in real terms since the Evil Tories took power? As I explained when discussing the greedy nurses, use 2008 and the comparator with private sector workers and inflation arrrives at a far less result for obvious reasons. Median pay rises in both private and public sectors have lagged inflation over the past 12 years: we may accept that but the blanket pay rise is only one part of the cookie. Alll teachers get an annual review to see if they can move up the pay scale within their rank of teachers. And increasingly the unions are pushing for this review not to be performance based (heaven forbid) but based just on how long you have served. The National Education Union states:
“In England, many academies are abolishing performance-related pay (PRP) in favour of pay progression for eligible teachers based on the acquisition of experience and expertise. PRP has been abolished in Wales. We are making gains in our campaign to abolish PRP, but in the meantime use this and other information in the NEU pay toolkit to support pay progression for members.”
So just hang in there and you will automaticallly get a pay bump every few years. And thus unless Louise Atkinson is heroically useless her pay will not have fallen by 20% in real terms. In fact so generous up the increases related to moving “up the spine” she might actually be better off.
Now remember that the median full time wage in the UK is £31,285. A tecaher on his or her first day gets £28,000 if he or she works outside London. In central London that is £34,502. Without getting promoted to having any managerial responsibility even within your department, by moving up the pay scale at that rank teachers can move to £38,810 in the boonies or £44,756 in central London. Start moving up the profession and taking on a few more responsibilites and someone who is still primarity a teacher then gets to a grade where annual earnings. The Department for Education states:
“ Most established teachers will earn more than this maximum by progressing onto the upper pay range for teachers, or by becoming a leading practitioner. If you can demonstrate excellence against all of the teacher standards, you can be put onto the upper pay range for teachers. This is for teachers who make a sustained and substantial contribution to their school.”
In other words if you are a great teacher you get paid more. Fair enough but how much more. Out in the boonies its £43,685 and in Central London £53,482.
And then there are the fat cat pensions paid for by guess who? Of course, it is like the nurses. My pension is one that I pay into with my own hard earned cash as do most of you in the accursed private sector. But for the lucky teachers the employer (that is you and me the grateful taxpayer) pays a sum equivalent to 23.6% of salary from day one. So a teacher on day 1 of his or her job is already taking home a package worth more than £34,000 – that is to say well in excess of the UK median average wage of all workers, not just folks aged 24.
By the time a teacher has been in the profession 12 years like comrade Atkinson his or her total package is going to be worth c£50,000. And remember that while you and I might work 236-241 days a year, a teacher works just 190 days and will teach for just 185 as training (INSET days) is done on days when working parents must look after their pupils. Odd that the private sector does not work like that isnt it?
So what Louise Atkinson and her colleagues are going on strike to achieve is that we must all pay more in tax to increase her package, even the 65% of the population whose current total earnings are less than that of the average teacher and who wiull not get anything like a blanket 12% hike this year plus pay bumps just for not getting fired.
Can anyone explain how this is fair or justified and just not greedy troughing?
