Anger at £1,600 fee for teachers' pay appeal
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Teachers at independent schools are being forced to pay £1,600 to appeal if their applications for performance-related pay rises are turned down, a union said yesterday.
The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers condemned the charges as "distasteful" and called for safeguards to ensure that the practice never spread to state schools.
Chris Keates, the union's deputy general secretary, said it was unfair to charge someone £1,600 to challenge a verdict that could at best result in them getting a £2,000 pay rise.
The charges have been set by Cambridge Education Associates, the company that holds the government contract to run its performance-related pay scheme.
CEA does not reimburse teachers even if their appeal succeeds – meaning that 80 per cent of their pay rise is swallowed up by the charges.
Since September 2000 experienced teachers in the state sector have been eligible for performance-related bonuses of more than £2,000. Many independent schools also introduced the scheme to compete for staff with state schools.
Ms Keates said: "It is a distasteful practice to charge individual teachers for something which should be an automatic entitlement." She added that the Government's policy of encouraging private-sector involvement in state schools made her concerned that the charges could spread.
A spokeswoman for CEA said the £1,600 charge reflected the actual cost of the appeal. She said: "It is an extremely rigorous case-by-case process. £1,600 is what an appeal costs. There is no extra fee being taken by CEA.
"CEA would not make charges to the maintained sector as this would break the terms of our contract with the Department for Education and Skills."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments