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| NATIONAL UNION OF TEACHERS HEADQUARTERS Hamilton House Mabledon Place London WC1H 9BD Telephone 020 7388 6191 Fax 020 7387 8458 www.teachers.org.uk General Secretary Christine Blower Deputy General Secretary Kevin Courtney |
Dear Colleague
PENSION BALLOT – BULLETIN ONE
As you know, Annual Conference voted overwhelmingly in favour of balloting members for discontinuous strike action in opposition to proposed changes to teachers’ pensions, with the first day of action probably taking place on 30 June.
The Union is delighted that the ATL is also balloting its members and the UCU has an extant ballot, having taken their first day of action on 24 March 2011.
This circular is the first of a series of information bulletins which will be sent out as the ballot progresses. It is important that local officers read these carefully and check the website and Hearth regularly for updates and information on the ballot.
Information and answers to the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the dispute and the reasons we are balloting members now are available on the website at: http://www.teachers.org.uk/pensions.
The Ballot Timetable and Constituency
The Union is balloting the following members.
All members of the NUT in England and Wales who are eligible for membership of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) and who would normally be working on the day of the strike.
This includes all NUT members employed as:
· teachers in local authority maintained schools, whether community, voluntary controlled, voluntary aided or foundation schools;
· teachers in local authority central services, paid as teachers and eligible for the TPS;
· teachers in academies;
· teachers in sixth form colleges, FE colleges and post-1992 universities, which are all part of the TPS; and
· teachers in independent schools which have been admitted to the TPS.
It excludes supply teacher members, members in other independent schools and members not employed as teachers and not eligible for the TPS, e.g., Soulbury-paid members who are mostly in the Local Government Pension Scheme.
Notice letters will be sent to all relevant employers in accordance with the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 to reach them by no later than Thursday, 5 May. The ballot will commence on Tuesday, 17 May and will close at midday on Tuesday, 14 June 2011. The probable day for strike action will be Thursday, 30 June 2011.
BALLOT HOTLINE – OPERATIONAL FROM 23 MAY 2011
Telephone Hotline: 020 7380 6300; e-mail hotline: action@nut.org.uk.
The Hotline will be operative from Monday, 23 May 2011. This service is to be staffed during normal office hours. The telephone hotline will operate up to Monday, 6 June, after which point it will not be possible to ensure the delivery of ballot papers in time for their return by 14 June.
Members should be encouraged to call the ballot hotline in person and should have their membership number, school/workplace address with postcode as well as their home address details.
The hotline will only deal with queries about the despatch of duplicate or additional ballot papers. Any queries about the reasons for balloting will be directed to local officers and regional/Wales offices.
Supply Teachers
The industrial dispute does not apply to those employed by agencies, as they do not have access to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme. Although supply teachers directly employed by local authorities or schools do have access to the Teachers’ Pensions Scheme, they are not being included in the ballot because the NUT cannot demonstrate that it knows which employer they would be working for on the strike day.
We have not taken this decision lightly and we do not wish supply members to feel that they have been deliberately disenfranchised but we must ensure that we ballot members according to the stringent ballot laws.
There may be members identified on our membership database as ‘supply teachers’ but who may be entitled to vote in the ballot and take part in any resulting strike action, if the Union can be sure that this is the case.
We are, therefore, writing to all members identified as supply explaining the reasons why they were not included in the ballot and advising that if they are:
· directly employed (and NOT via an agency) by a local authority or school; and
· they pay (or have the option to pay) pension contributions to Teachers’ Pensions; and
· they anticipate that they will be working on 30 June – the probable action date.
They should call the Ballot Hotline on 020 7380 6300 (OPERATIONAL FROM 23 MAY) with the following information:
THEIR MEMBERSHIP NUMBER
THE SCHOOL IN WHICH THEY ARE WORKING
THE FULL ADDRESS OF THE SCHOOL
Joint NUT/ATL Letter to Members
A jointly badged letter with the ATL is available on Hearth for local officers to send to members locally with details of the dispute and ballot timetable.
Pension Action Meetings
The vast majority of divisions and associations have arranged a series of meetings for school representatives. The aim of these meetings is to both arm representatives with the arguments around pensions and to explain why we are balloting members now.
Divisions and associations should be putting effort into maximising attendance at these meetings. The Union is contacting all NUT representatives, for whom we have contact details, to encourage their attendance at the nearest Action Meeting and this should supplement your efforts to use your well-established links with representatives to encourage attendance.
At the conclusion of these meetings, we want representatives to:
· feel confident in calling on members to vote ‘YES’ in the ballot;
· to call a meeting in their school;
· to work with colleagues in the ATL;
· to maximise participation in the ballot and ensure the biggest ‘YES’ vote;
· to get more members involved in the union.
To help achieve this, a suite of documents has been produced to help you as a Division or Association Secretary. This suite includes:
· a model PowerPoint that can be used at both a division and school meeting;
· an outline of a training session you may wish to use instead of, or alongside, the PowerPoint;
· a set of frequently asked questions, to be used by both division secretaries and school representatives;
· a sign-in sheet for both division meetings and school meetings;
· and, coming soon, a video where members explain how much they will lose and why they are voting for action.
You are encouraged to print these materials or point representatives towards the web to do so for their school meetings.
Many of you have already let us know about the arrangements for the Action Meetings planned in your area. A full list is available on the website and on Hearth at: http://www.teachers.org.uk/node/12983 and this will be updated periodically.
This is an extremely important dispute and ballot. We know that we can rely on you all to work hard to get the maximum possible ‘YES’ vote and demonstrate, alongside our ATL colleagues, how strongly our members feel about this issue.
Yours sincerely
CHRISTINE BLOWER KEVIN COURTNEY
General Secretary Deputy General Secretary
