Northern Ireland teachers unions ballot members on strike

The pay dispute could also spread to include the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

BBC News NI has seen an extract from an executive document which underpinned Monday’s budget reallocation, known as a monitoring round.

It says that there is only enough money to offer civil servants a 3% pay increase for 2024/25.

It adds that trade unions have already indicated that would not be an acceptable award.

There is a warning that a 3% offer would be “particularly difficult to defend if awards to other pay groups are materially higher”.

The executive document also notes that the pay guidelines for the civil service in Great Britain will allow “an average pay award of up to 5%” there.

Teachers in England received a 5.5% pay rise for 2024-25 from the government in September.

It was funded by an additional £1.2bn from the UK government.

Despite the fact that it is more than halfway through the 2024-25 financial year, no pay deal for teachers in Northern Ireland has yet been agreed.

The teaching unions in Northern Ireland accepted a previous pay deal in March 2024, but that was a backdated one covering the years from 2021 to 2024.

There had been stalemate over a pay rise for teachers for three years as inflation rose, leading to strikes and other industrial action.