| Members of the ATL executive members voted on Saturday to accept the government’s final pensions offer for teachers. This follows the results of ATL’s poll of members in which 91.6% of respondents voted in favour of the proposals. The decision follows the results of ATL’s poll of members in which 91.6% of respondents voted in favour of the proposals. The ATL is the first teaching union to settle. EIS, NASUWT, NUT, UCAC and UCU have refused to sign the government’s ‘Heads of Agreement’ document ATL polled all members eligible to be members of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) in England and Wales, and all members eligible to be members of the respective schemes in Northern Ireland and Scotland because the government wants changes to the TPS to be replicated there. In England and Wales 91.6% of respondents voted in favour of the proposals, in Northern Ireland 89.2%, and in Scotland 100%. ATL president Alice Robinson said: “ATL members are realists. They recognise how tough times and that the government is determined not to give any further ground. Although the government’s final offer does not give us everything we wanted, it is the best deal we could get in the current economic climate. And members do not want a significantly worse deal imposed on them if they rejected this one.” General secretary Dr Mary Bousted said: “The pensions talks and negotiations were incredibly tough. The government did not want to make concessions and we had a hard fight to get a fairer deal for teachers. “It was only because ATL members, along with the members of six other education unions, were prepared to show their strength of feeling by going on strike and lobbying their MPs that we managed to force the government to shift its position and start talks to get an improved offer. I am really proud of the courage ATL members showed when they took part in the union’s first national strike in its 127-year history. “We are still not happy about the pension contribution rates for 2012 to 2014, on which the government refused to negotiate. But we will negotiate hard over the rates from 2015 onwards. “We will also closely monitor the rate of members opting out of the TPS, Northern Ireland and Scottish pension schemes, and will ensure the government takes action if this threatens the schemes’ health.” |