A second teaching union has voted to accept the government’s pay deal.

The National Education Union said its members had voted to accept the Department of Education, Sport and Culture’s proposal by a ’slim majority’.

It joins the National Association of Head Teachers in voting for the pay offer.

Under the deal tabled after weeks of negotiations with the teaching unions, senior leaders will get a one-off lump sum of £2,850 while those on the upper pay range will get £1,850.

This will be funded by £1.5m of new money.

The deal also includes a commitment to review pay talks in any year in light of local conditions, discontinue appraisals, postpone external validations until August 2021 and to have union involvement in the Education Bill.

In a statement, the NEU described the proposal as ’a move in the right direction’.

It said acceptance of the offer was a ’first step on the road to fairer pay that addresses the serious pay erosion of teachers over the last 10 years’.

An NEU spokesman said: ’We welcome the DESC’s commitment to rebuilding relationships with our educational professionals and look forward to working together to repair the damage done to our profession by years of pay erosion.

’This decision was not an easy one for our membership.

’Our concerns for the island’s ability to attract and retain the best of educators is a serious one and the underfunding of education across the board, from fair pay to school budgets to SEN provision must be urgently addressed.

’We do however, recognise that now is not the time for an elongated battle over wages.’