Teachers in Wales accept pay offer, easing threat of more UK strikes

LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) - Teachers in Wales have accepted a new pay offer following a consultation, their trade union said on Thursday, ending one part of a dispute that has caused disruptive strikes by thousands of teachers across Britain. The National Education Union (NEU) said 73% of its teacher members in Wales who responded to a consultation voted to accept the offer from the devolved Welsh government, comprising an additional 3% pay award for 2022/23 alongside a 1.5% one-off payment, and a government-funded 5% rise for the following year. "Whilst this doesn't meet our ambitions for pay restitution every part of this offer is due to our members' efforts," NEU Joint General Secretary Kevin Courtney said. In England, the NEU and other teaching unions remain in "intensive" pay talks announced last week in a bid to end strikes by hundreds of thousands of teachers. The NEU has said it won't call for fresh strikes for two weeks during the talks. Scotland's largest teaching union has also accepted a pay deal to end long-running strikes, which it said would amount to a 14.6% increase in pay for most teachers by January 2024. Since last summer, Britain has been experiencing its worst wave of worker unrest in decades, with strikes over pay affecting a range of professions as inflation runs at a four-decade high of more than 10%. But the threat of further strikes has been easing in recent weeks. The RMT railway workers' union has accepted an improved pay offer in one dispute and suspended strikes in another as it holds further pay talks with train companies, while healthcare unions are consulting on a new pay proposal by the government. (Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar;
Editing by Sandra Maler)