Trade unions have “reluctantly” accepted the National Employers’ 3% pay offer following results of an employee ballot.

In March, the National Employers offered a “full and final” 3.3% pay rise, adding £870m to the national pay bill with 1.5m employees in England, Wales and Northern Ireland covered by the arrangement.

Unison, GMB, and Unite, which represent 1.4 million council and school staff across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, had jointly submitted a request for pay rises of at least £3,000 or 10%, whichever is greater for 2026-27, despite this same increase being rejected for 2025-26 and 2024-25. However this was rejected by the National Employers.

This new pay deal will take effect from 1 April and will be back paid to both current and former employees up to the last day of their employment.

The Local Government Association has confirmed that a pay offer for officers and chief executives has been reached in a statement on their website.

According to Unison, the National Joint Council pay ballot involved around 200,000 staff, as well as around 500 employers, predominantly made up of schools and councils.

Mike Short, head of local government at Unison, said the result of the ballot now meant the union would not be pursuing strike action.

He added: “Unions have therefore reluctantly accepted the employers’ 3.3% offer, and we’re calling on councils and schools to implement the increase and backpay as soon as possible.

“But settling this year’s dispute doesn’t make the problem of low pay in local government disappear. Workers have seen the value of their wages severely eroded after years of increases failing to keep pace with the cost of living.”

He continued that the union would keep pressing on behalf of council and school staff for “substantial improvements” and said attention now turned to 2027, and “making the strongest possible case for a much better deal”.

In a bulletin to GMB members, national officer for local government, Will Dalton said while a majority of regions had initially voted to reject the offer, the turnout was lower than the required amount needed for a formal ballot on industrial action.

He added that meant GMB regions and national local government and schools committees “had no option but to vote to reluctantly accept the offer for 2026”.

Mr Dalton said GMB has proposed to the other trade unions that work on the 2027 pay claim begin “straight away and demand early face to face negotiations with the employers”.

A spokesperson for GMB said: “Whilst clearly not enough for our local government members, who have suffered real terms pay cuts for the majority of the past ten years – it does represent a 3.3 per cent pay rise, which they will now get in their pay packets and quickly as possible.”

However, the union that represents senior managers at local authorities Alace is “pleased” that the pay award and “all local government staff covered by the” national joint council has now been accepted.

A spokesperson added: “Our sector is under huge pressure, and staff are working incredibly hard every day.”

A spokesperson for the National Employers said:  “We are pleased agreement has been reached on this year’s pay award so that employees can receive their well-deserved pay increase.”

Editor’s note: This article has been amended to include comment from Alace, National Employers and GMB