At today’s (Saturday 19 September) largest gathering of supply teachers, members of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union in the UK, pledged their support to the Protect the Right to Strike campaign.

Under the planned new regulations, supply teachers could be brought into schools to cover for teachers who are on strike.

Chris Keates,General Secretary of the NASUWT, said:

“The hundreds of supply teachers attending today’s NASUWT conference have confirmed their strong opposition to the Government’s proposal to undermine the right to strike.

“The Government’s Trade Union Bill, if enacted, will place supply teachers and other agency workers in an invidious situation and is a clear attempt to set one group of workers against another.

“Given the Government’s lack of policy to protect agency workers, it is of course unsurprising that they will be subject to further exploitation purely to suit the Government’s ideological aims.

“NASUWT supply teacher members have today pledged their support to Protect the Right to Strike and made it clear that they will not be pawns in the Government’s plans to undermine the vital work of trade unions on behalf of their members.”