The National Education Union's annual conference has passed a motion instructing officers to prepare for a formal ballot unless the government increases its 2.8% pay offer, which delegates deemed "unacceptable". The union warned that the current proposal will prevent the government from meeting its target of recruiting 6,500 more teachers and is inadequate and unfunded. A preliminary ballot found that a majority of NEU teacher members in England are willing to take strike action for a fully funded, significantly higher pay award.

The government is not taking action to resolve the Birmingham bin strike, according to Unite general secretary Sharon Graham. She claims that "false narratives" have been used in government statements on the dispute and that the government-appointed commissioner Max Caller is making decisions without union involvement. Graham says that the council's proposals would see 50 workers lose £8,000 a year and about 20 lose £2,000 per annum. The local authority rejects this claim, saying only 17 workers would face up to a £6,000 loss per year.

The Unite union boss, Sharon Graham, claims that the government is sitting on its hands over the Birmingham bin strike, allowing a dispute to escalate into farce. Graham wrote to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner that the government's statements on the dispute contain "false narratives" and that ministers are not taking action to resolve the issue. The dispute involves a planned restructuring of Birmingham's refuse service, which would see some workers losing pay.

Further education lecturers in Northern Ireland, represented by the University and College Union (UCU), have voted overwhelmingly in favor of strike action and action short of strike over pay. The vote was sparked by the UCU's claim that college employers had reneged on a pay deal and Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald had reduced the baseline budget for FE colleges by 7.9% and told them to find £18m of efficiency savings.