Members of one of Jersey's largest teaching unions have accepted the government's multi-year pay offer.

The NASUWT surveyed its members on the States Employment Board's latest offer of an 8% rise and a one-off £1,000 payment in 2024, plus pay increases in line with inflation for 2025 and 2026.

A 7.9% uplift for 2023, rejected by the teaching unions, was applied in August and backdated to last January. 

Union members have been told the survey was closely run, with 62% of the island's NASUWT members taking part.

Channel 103 understands the vote was so close it had to go before the NASUWT's national action committee for a decision.

Of those who took part in the ballot, 31% said they were happy for the offer to be accepted as it stands, with another 21% saying while they weren't happy with it, they thought it should be accepted.

However, 47% of the voting members wanted to see the offer rejected.

An NASUWT official said while the union will no longer be in dispute over pay, its issues regarding teachers' workloads remain unresolved.

“Teachers on Jersey are long overdue an increase in pay as part of their fight for fair and reasonable working conditions. There must be no delay from the SEB in implementing this award.

Members have endured years of real terms pay erosion, escalating living costs, and spiralling workloads. Despite these challenges, they have continued to deliver an extremely high standard of education to Jersey’s children and young people.

Pay is only one of our concerns for Jersey’s hard-working and dedicated teachers. They need a Better Deal and we will continue to press for action to tackle the intolerable levels of workload on our members. We are still awaiting commitments from the States Government to secure the resolution of these outstanding issues.”- Dr Patrick Roach, General Secretary.

Deputy Elaine Millar, vice-chair of the States Employment Board has welcomed the acceptance of the offer:

“We are pleased to hear that NASUWT members have voted to accept the 2024-26 pay deal. We will recommence constructive meetings with the National Education Union when the school holidays are over.”

The NEU teaching union voted to reject the multi-year offer and went ahead with a planned three-day strike last week.