Millions in compensation paid out to teachers in the last year

Teachers were awarded tens of millions of pounds last year after facing attacks from pupils, injuries and discrimination in the workplace, latest figures show.

Teaching union NASUWT said it secured £27.7 million from teachers’ employers for its members during the past 12 months.

This was a 72 per cent increase on £16.1m in compensation won for its members in 2015, up from £19.8m and £20.7m in 2014 and 2013.

In Yorkshire more than £2.3m was paid out to teachers who have had their “careers, lives, and health blighted” whilst carrying out their work.

Chris Keates, general secretary of teaching union NASWT, said: “If employers took the welfare of staff seriously and followed good employment and health and safety practices, these cases would never have to be taken and members would have been spared the stress and anxiety of pursuing legal claims.

“Behind every one of these cases are teachers who have had their careers, lives and health blighted in the course of simply trying to do their job.

“Unfortunately, the Government has given little incentive to employers to improve working conditions and practices following cuts to health and safety inspections and the callous undermining of equalities legislation.”

Five-figure sums were brokered for those on the end of the worst treatment, with one 44-year-old member of teaching staff receiving more than £98,000 relating to “serious psychological injuries” after an assault by a pupil. A 32-year-old primary school teacher, from Yorkshire, received £9,500 after her request to work part-time upon her return from maternity leave was turned down on the basis it would negatively impact the school. However, evidence showed the headteacher was not in favour of part-time job sharing for teachers and had applied a blanket policy not to allow it. After being offered an unsuitable role that would have taken the teacher outside the classroom, relations in the workplace soured and she felt she had no option but to quit.

Analysis of English council spending on local services from 2010/11 to 2014/15 showed a 25 per cent drop on health and safety expenditure. Asked why there had been such a surge in compensation payouts, the union boss said: “This is down to the levels of disregard by employers in terms of their responsibilities and obligations to the workforce.

“The lack of both appropriate inspection, accountability and enforcement, which is a role traditionally played by local authorities, is forcing many of our members to have to seek redress, including through the courts.

“This is symptomatic of a system where some employers feel they can disregard the rights of the workforce, to discriminate, to fail to meet their health and safety obligations and to harass and victimise teachers with impunity.”

There were also examples of teachers receiving smaller payouts due to accidents in the workplace. The union secured £10,100 for a 57-year-old member in the North East who worked as a teacher at a youth offender institution after the teacher unwittingly inhaling dangerous fumes from a chemical-based product used to soak up spilled blood.

Separate data from the NUT, which is holding its annual conference this weekend, shows similar tales of violence in the classroom.