A pay rise for teachers will be backdated until September.

While the 2% pay rise is good news for Isle of Man teachers, some teachers missed out on receiving it earlier.

Pay for Isle of Man teachers is aligned with the School Teachers’ Review Body, which in 2015 recommended a 1% rise to teacher pay ranges, except for the maximum point on the main pay scale (M6), for which it recommended 2%.

However, the STRB recommended the additional 1% should be discretionary and where performance ’merited’ it.

In the Isle of Man, said Education Minister Graham Cregeen MHK, the consensus view with the unions in 2015 was to apply a 1% pay rise across the board, to avoid ’distortion to pay differentials’.

It meant there was a difference between what teachers on the M6 pay grade here were awarded and some on the same grade in the UK were awarded.

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Mr Cregeen said that, in September this year, Isle of Man education chiefs decided to implement the latest STRB recommendation of a 2% increase to minimum and maximum of the main pay range, with a 1% increase for all others.

The arrears from September will be paid as the rises are rolled out.

Mr Cregeen told Tynwald: ’At a joint unions meeting in November 2017 it came to light that over the last two years most schools and academies in the UK had applied the 2% increase across each point on the main teaching scale,’ he said.

’It was therefore agreed to apply the 2% increase to each point on the main teaching pay scale from September 2017.

’This will be implemented in December’s payroll with the arrears being paid in December.’

However, when Julie Edge (Onchan) asked about those teachers who could have had a 2% rise dating back to 2015, Mr Cregeen pointed out that had always been discretionary, so the backdating only went back to September this year.

In the past five years, the government has spent £353,000 on relocation expenses, bringing teachers to the Isle of Man.

Mr Cregeen said: ’There is significant competition in trying to attract teachers to the island. We must ensure as far as possible that our pay rates do not appear to be less advantageous than those available in England and Wales, excluding the London area.’

With effect from September this year, the government has agreed to increase the top M6 point ’to mirror the main scale point published in the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document for England and Wales’, he said.