15 May 2001
Teachers in England will receive shortly a mailing pack about the GTC. The pack includes two important forms, one for registration and the other for the payment of the GTC fee. It also includes two documents for consultation.
Registration - compulsory Registration is a legal requirement. NUT members are advised that they must register: complete the form and return it as required in the directions.
Say 'NO' to DfEE propaganda
The registration form includes in part three an option to receive DfEE communications which include marketing by commercial organisations or other third parties. The Government has been forced to seek your approval for this by the NUT's successful approach to the Data Protection Officer. These 'communications' are essentially Government propaganda magazines which try - and fail - to emulate the NUT's magazine, The Teacher. The purpose of the Government is to use your GTC registration to create a mailing list. NUT members are advised NOT to put a cross in the box. Leave the box open. Your details can then not be given by the GTC to the Government.
Don't volunteer payment
NUT members are advised to complete and return the registration form but to decline the invitation to pay the fee by direct debit or by deduction voluntarily from pay. This is not a boycott of the GTC. It is not a refusal to pay. The Government intends to bring in regulations to enable the GTC in England to inform employers about those registered teachers whose fees "should be deducted from their salaries". The employers will then be under a duty to deduct from salary, the GTC fee from teachers in maintained schools and non-maintained special schools. It will be like a tax. NUT members in England are advised NOT to return the GTC Fee Payment Form.
Consultation documents
NUT members are urged to defer their responses to these consultative documents until the circulation of the NUT's views as a Union. You can then make your own response knowing your Union's views.
Wales - GTC payment deferred
In Wales, the NUT succeeded in persuading the Welsh Assembly to fund the activities of the Wales GTC for the first year while reviewing the role and funding of the Council. Payment of the fee is therefore deferred at least until the financial years 2002-3.
TC mailing pack: summary of advice :
* Complete and return the Registration Form but ...
* ... do not put an X in the box about Government communications.
* Do not complete and do not return the GTC Fee Payment Form.
* Defer your responses to the consultation documents in the professional code and on the corporate plan.
General Secretary, Doug McAvoy, said: "The NUT has repeatedly advised members in England to decline the invitation to pay the GTC fee voluntarily. The NASUWT has now joined the NUT in giving that advice to its members. The Government in Westminster should follow the lead of the Welsh Assembly and fund the GTC, at least for the first year, whilst we resolve the outstanding issues."