Members of four teachers’ unions in Northern Ireland will take to the picket lines next Tuesday, February 21 for a half-day of strike action as the stalemate over a pay deal continues.

Since October, teachers have been carrying out action short of a strike in schools, but with no progress in talks between the unions and employers and the Department of Education, this action is the next step.

The INTO, UTU, NASUWT and the NEU unions will all take part in the strike actions.

Marie O’Shea, a representative of the Northern Committee of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), said that the strike action is a last resort for teachers but they have “reached the upper threshold of what we’re prepared to put up with”.

Talking to this paper, she said: “It’s really a last resort, and it has come about now because of the change of circumstances in that we had held out hope for negotiations with a minister.

“But we don’t have that because of what’s happening in Stormont, or the lack of what’s happening in Stormont.

“Then [there’s] the position now where the Secretary of State has issued, through the Northern Ireland Office, budgets to the departments and now department secretaries are putting those through, and that’s impacting school side [matters] and our pay dispute falls in the middle of all that.”

Marie said the strike was not now only about pay, but the future of education. “I don’t know how schools are going to do what they need to do.

“Then you’ve got the whole issue of schools having to deal with the cost of living increase, and the cost of fuel and energy costs.”

With no pay awards given to teachers for the last two financial years, and with this being unlikely for the coming year, Marie said this shows that teachers are not being valued.

“We’re professionals. We’re trained to be in the job that we are in, and we’re not being valued in that job at the minute. We’re not seen as important in the system, and really, without education, a society doesn’t really go very far.

“It is as if teachers are [seen as] immune to the cost of living process – we’re not. We’re dealing with financial hardship as well.”

Looking ahead to Tuesday’s strike, she said that this is just another step, and she does not rule out further action in the future.

“The half-day strike is, we hope, a one-off to bring the employers and the Department to their senses. Come back into the room, have the conversations with us, and be there for meaningful negotiations, because the INTO and its members want that to be happening.

“But we have to be realistic, too, that they need to know that we’re not going to just put up with it any more. We’re not just going to keep everything ticking along, doing what we need to do.

“We have to know that our voice has been heard as well, and they understand what we need and what we want, moving forward, and yes, potentially it could escalate again.

“I think we’ve been conservative in how we’ve approached this by only taking the half-day strike,” added Marie.

Commenting on the upcoming strike action, a spokesperson for the Education Authority (EA), said they had received notification from teaching unions about the strike.

The EA spokesperson said the EA was considering the potential implications of this action, and steps that could be taken to mitigate the impact on children and young people.

They added: “Whilst we respect the right of teachers to take industrial action, we are disappointed in the decision to take strike action at a time when discussions with the teaching trade unions are ongoing.

“We value all our staff and are committed to working with both teaching trade unions and other education employing authorities to resolve this dispute at the earliest opportunity.”