Teachers are planning strikes to pressure the county council for a pay rise to match that of colleagues from elsewhere in Sussex and other parts of the country.

The NUT and ATL unions, which will shortly amalgamate to become the National Education Union (NEU), represent two-thirds of teachers in East Sussex, has sent teachers ballot papers for strike action.

This comes after their pay this year fell below their colleagues from other parts of the county and country for the first time.

Teachers in the area are hundreds of pounds worse off compared to their colleagues.

Last year, headteacher and teacher organisations across the country agreed to a two per cent pay rise for qualified teachers in sixth-form schools.

This is for teachers with a the lower pay scale between £21,000 to £30,000.

However, East Sussex County Council has failed to put this into its pay policy which provides the recommended rates of pay to most East Sussex Schools.

Phil Clarke of the NEU said: “The average cost to an East Sussex school to give all the eligible teachers the full pay award is only £1,700 per year across the whole school.

To deny teachers’ pay equality for such a small sum of money is self-defeating and will only exacerbate problems around recruitment and retention of teachers. In the South-East house prices are getting more expensive, and the cost of living is going up.

“With the current pay, teachers will struggle.

“Teachers with the higher pay scale are also very supportive of their colleagues.”

The NEU has taken action to pressure the county council by sending out voting papers to six schools at a time.

So far, teachers have responded positively to the strike action.

Mr Clarke said: “We have sent out our first set of ballot papers. We are confident we will get lots of support from the teachers.

“The first teachers to be called out on strike would be taking action in late April if agreement cannot be reached.

“We are not sending our papers all at once, this is just to keep the pressure on.”

He added he was very supportive of the Save Our Schools’ (SOS) latest national campaign to highlight how funding cuts have pushed schools to make drastic decisions to make savings.

He said: “I am very pleased that SOS has done so well to show the effects of funding cuts. I am 100 per cent supportive of their actions.

“What we’re doing, and what SOS is doing is all related.

“It’s not only affecting teachers’ pay, but also school resources and developments.

“You can’t squeeze anymore from schools. I heard some schools have to cut extra-curricular subjects such as music.”

A spokeswoman from East Sussex County Council said: “We consult annually on a Model Pay Policy for ESCC maintained schools, based on the Department for Education’s School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD).

"It is the role of each Governing Body to decide if they wish to adopt the ESCC Model Pay Policy or, alternatively, to consult and adopt their own version within the national pay framework published in the STPCD.”