The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), the third largest teachers union in the UK, has announced that it has accepted the Government’s controversial pension proposals following a poll of members who voted in favor in the reform.

The union represents 160,000 instructors across the country. And the results of a poll of members showed that 91.6% of respondents voted in favor of the proposals, writes the Belfast Telegraph.

ATL president Alice Robinson said:

“ATL members are realists. They recognize how tough times are and that the Government is determined not to give any further ground.

“Although the Government’s final offer does not give us everything we wanted, it is the best deal we could get in the current economic climate.

“And members do not want a significantly worse deal imposed on them if they rejected this one.”

The ATL were involved in the strike late last year that saw a record two million public sector workers take industrial action against the proposed pension changes.

This announcement has quelled ideas that a repeat of a strike on such a scale could happen in the new year.

Mary Bousted, ATL’s general secretary, said:

“The pensions talks and negotiations were incredibly tough. The Government did not want to make concessions and we had a hard fight to get a fairer deal for teachers.

“It was only because ATL members, along with the members of six other education unions, were prepared to show their strength of feeling by going on strike and lobbying their MPs that we managed to force the Government to shift its position and start talks to get an improved offer.

“I am really proud of the courage ATL members showed when they took part in the union’s first national strike in its 127-year history.

“We are still not happy about the pension contribution rates for 2012 to 2014, on which the Government refused to negotiate. But we will negotiate hard over the rates from 2015 onwards.

“We will also closely monitor the rate of members opting out of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, Northern Ireland and Scottish pension schemes, and will ensure the Government takes action if this threatens the schemes’ health.”

While leaders have announced that they had accepted the outline “heads of agreement”, they were keen to outline that the agreement was not a final deal as a number of “significant” areas still had to be discussed.

General Secretary Brian Lightman said:

“It was with considerable reservation that executive took the decision to accept this agreement. We recognise that we have achieved a significant improvement over the first offer put on the table and that it provides important concessions, but there is also huge anger from our members about how the whole process has been managed and the inconsiderate way the profession is being treated.

“Throughout this difficult time ASCL remained committed to negotiating with the Government, to ensure that young people’s education was not disrupted and that lines of communication remained open, and we are pleased that this approach, however demanding, has been successful.

“We have warned ministers that school and college leaders are feeling demoralised and disempowered by the Government’s assault from all directions on the education system, and the approach it takes during the remaining negotiations will be all-important if a final agreement is to be reached.

“One of the key areas ASCL will be pushing in the coming weeks is flexibility to retire early. We are convinced that the proposal to raise the retirement age to 68 will have a detrimental effect on teaching standards by requiring people to work to an age when many no longer have the stamina and drive to perform at a level required of teachers and school leaders in a demanding and tiring job.

“The ASCL executive believes that the Government is making a grave mistake in insisting on this and it is very important that flexibilities are introduced to the scheme enabling people to retire before 68.”