A teaching union says a pay award announced this week must be fully funded by government.

Teachers in the island are set to receive their biggest pay rise in 15 years, the government has announced.

The pay award will mean the starting salary for new teachers will increase by 5.5% and the maximum of the main pay range and the upper and lower boundaries of all other pay and allowances will rise by 2.75%.

It is equivalent to a 3.1% increase in the overall pay bill, 2% of which is already included in budgets and the remaining 1.1% will be found from within existing budgets.

But one teaching union said it was ‘completely unacceptable’ that the Manx government is not meeting the cost in full – and experienced teachers were not getting the pay award to which they are ‘entitled’.

Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the teachers’ union NASUWT, said: ‘It is completely unacceptable that the government is refusing to meet in full the cost of ensuring every teacher receives the pay award they are entitled to.

‘It is making a choice to pass the cost of funding 1.1% of this pay award on to schools, rather than doing the right thing and funding the entirety of the salary uplift.

‘The NASUWT believes that the government can afford to fund the pay award in full and that it is completely unacceptable to place schools in the impossible situation of deciding between education provision, jobs and teacher pay when managing their budgets.

‘Ministers may claim this award represents the biggest increase in teacher pay for 15 years, but this obscures the fact that the cost of living is rising and that the award fails to redress the real-terms pay cuts of a third since 2010.’

Teaching unions have been in a long-running dispute with the Department of Education, Sport and Culture over pay and conditions.

Isle of Man teachers are paid the same as those in England.

The pay award follows UK Education Secretary Gavin Williamson accepting all recommendations from the independent School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB).

Under the deal on average teachers will get an extra on £1,250 on average and head teachers £1,970 more.

Dr Roach the increases to starting salaries for new teachers would be widely welcomed but he pointed out that schools also rely on the contributions of experienced teachers.

‘The government’s announcement on teachers’ pay does not provide experienced teachers with the increased rewards they also deserve,’ he said.