Voice: Teachers should accept recommendations

The general secretary of education professionals' union Voice has said the National Union of Teachers' planned strike is "not proportionate".

Philip Parkin said teachers have to accept that they have "done better than other public sector workers" in recent years when it comes to pay.

He claimed teachers had done better "at the end of the last pay round and at the beginning of this one" and should accept the government's decision.

Explaining that workers should accept the government has the democratically-elected right to make spending priorities, Mr Parkin said: "We might not always agree with what they're going to spend the money on - that's the decision that the government is there to make."

Mr Parkin made clear he expressed "disappointment" on behalf of Voice's members that the pay settlement was not keeping pace with inflation, however, but insisted strike action was not the way forward.

"We chose the name Voice because dialogue is a core value for our union – it's how we resolve issues, rather than by taking industrial action," he finished.