The National Education Union (NEU) general secretary Daniel Kebede received a total pay package worth £164,654 last year — a 7% increase that puts him in the top 2% of UK earners, just a few thousand pounds shy of the Prime Minister's base salary. The disclosure comes as the NEU threatens national school strikes from October and issues a 34-page handbook urging teachers to refuse marking and emails on weekends. Critics, including Conservative MPs and the TaxPayers' Alliance, have seized on the pay figure to argue that the union's demands are unreasonable.

The £164,654 package that puts a union boss in the top 2% of earners

According to the report, Daniel Kebede's total remuneration included a base salary of £137,000, £26,300 in pension and National Insurance contributions, and nearly £1,300 toward a car and health plan. That pay packet rose by more than £10,000 from the previous year, making the NEU chief one of the best-paid union barons in the country. By comparison, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's base salary was around £167,000 last year. The TaxPayers' Alliance's William Yarwood said in the report that taxpayers would be appalled that a union boss on a six-figure package is threatening more disruptin to chidlren's education.

230 ballots, 477 working days lost — the NEU's war of attrition

The NEU conducted 230 ballots on industrial action over the past year, pressing ahead with 25 walkouts or action short of a strike, the source documents show. A total of 477 working days were lost as a result. The union has warned it will ballot members nationally on strikes from October unless ministers provide a fully-funded pay offer for teachers that exceeds inflation.. The Department for Education has so far offered a 6.5% pay hike over three years, which the NEU branded an “insult.” The scale of the ballot activity — and the disruption alreeady seen — points to a union leadership that, as former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith put it in the report, is “putting teachers first above children.”

A 34-page handbook that tells teachers to refuse weekend emails

The source article reveals that the NEU has issued members a “workload bargaining toolkit” — a 34-page document first obtained by The Sunday Times. It states that teachers should not be directed to undertake any work-related tasks on weekends or bank holidays, including planning, marking, or responding to emails. It also says lunch breaks of less than 40 minutes are “unreasonable,” and that schools should consult staff on the timing of parents’ evenings,inset days, and sports days. Head teachers quoted in the report called the guidance unworkable, noting that many parents’ evenings are already held in the afternoon to accommodate working parents. The handbook marks a significant escalation in the union's push for work-life balance, even as schools struggle with staffing and student outcomes.

Connaught School's 45-day strike and the student counterprotest

One of the most striking examples of the dispute's real-world impact comes from Connaught School for Girls in east London, where pupils became so frustrated after 45 days of strikes that they launched a counterprotest demanding an education last month. The incident, reported in the source, underscores a growing tension : the NEU's militant posture under Daniel Kebede has drawn criticism not only from politicians but from the very students whose schooling is being disrupted. The union, for its part, defends its actions as necessary to secure better pay and conditions for teachers, arguing that long-term investment in education benefits everyone. but the question of who speaks for the pupils — and whether their lost classroom time can ever be recovered — remains unresolved in the public debate.