A significant number of teachers are of the opinion that their respective school’s approach to pay is unfair, according to a new report from the National Union of Teachers (NUT).

Half of professions surveyed said that their employers pay policy is flawed, with over 60 per cent commenting that performance related pay having a negative impact on appraisals for professional development.

This comes some months after the full implementation of the government’s changes to the teachers’ pay progression framework in September 2014. The major change sees pay rises linked to appraisal outcomes “at all points of the pay structure”.

However, as the study from the NUT suggests, this system – which ultimately gives schools the power to define what they see as being appropriate criteria for pay progression – is more stringent and unjustly so.

For example, of the 4,950 teachers polled, over 60 per cent said that appraisal objectives for this academic year are more demanding than ever before, with 61 per cent of appraisers highlighting that the “link with pay progression” has increased their workload significantly.

Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary of the NUT, was quoted by TES as saying that the findings of the union’s paper clearly indicate that the implementation of this policy has been “dreadful”.

He added that accordingly, teachers’ pay progression is akin to a “lottery”, meaning that there is no longer a sense of fairness across schools – each has the capacity to determine pay increases. This therefore creates some significant distortions.

The report noted that of those who were eligible for progression, 28 per cent had been denied this. A considerable 89 per cent of teachers told the NUT researchers that decisions made about their pay progression are unmerited.

Surprisingly, despite the fact that so many professionals are displeased with the assessment, which they determine to be iniquitous, the majority (76 per cent) state that they will not appeal. In short, they think that there is “no point” in doing so because the outcome will ultimately be the same.

“The NUT has warned that many decisions under the new system will be based on inappropriate criteria,” the union stated in an official press release.

“For example, some respondents say that they were told that they did not receive progression because their teaching was ‘good but not outstanding’ or even ‘not consistently outstanding despite the elements of outstanding’ – a clear breach of the statutory provision that ‘continued good performance’ should result in progression to the top of the pay scale.”

One of the major findings of the survey includes the suggestion that particular groups of teachers are at an even greater risk of being held back, compared to other groups.

As a case in point, the NUT’s paper observed how pay progression among those identifying themselves as Black/Black British, Asian/Asian British experienced a higher rate of pay progression denial than White British teachers.

“All schools are required to set out clearly how their teachers’ pay is linked to performance and there is no evidence to suggest there are any schools that have not done this,” a Department for Education spokesperson was quoted by TES as saying.

“Any school without an appropriate policy in place will be held to account by Ofsted.”