Havering teachers will be taking industrial action from September 26 in protest over their pay and conditions, it has been announced.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) and NASUWT, who represent 90 per cent of teachers nationally, said they are taking action because of pay, pensions, workload, conditions of service and job loss.

On Wednesday the groups agreed that from September 26, their members will refuse to do ‘any work that doesn’t directly benefit pupils’.

Dave Malbon, from Havering NUT, said: “It won’t be like the work to rule of the 1980s where we didn’t run clubs or trips, it is something aimed directly at the government.

“We won’t be providing cover or completing performance administration work.

“School administration is going to get full up with those things not getting done, and if the government is getting pressure from head teachers it will have to listen.”

He added that members would also consider strike action at a later date if their concerns weren’t listened to, although stressed that this is not the current plan.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “We are very disappointed that a small minority of NUT members has voted this way. Industrial action would disrupt pupils’ education, hugely inconvenience parents and will damage the profession’s reputation in the eyes of the public.

“Parents and members of the public will struggle to understand why the NUT chose to ballot their members now about pay and working conditions when decisions about future pay arrangements have yet to be made.”