Alan Johnson has turned down teachers' call for a pay review

Education Secretary Alan Johnson has rejected demands for the current pay deal to be reconsidered.

The National Union of Teachers attacked this as a "breach of honour" which let down teachers.

Mr Johnson, replying to the teachers' pay body, says the concerns should be addressed in the next pay negotiations for 2008 to 2011.

In a letter sent on Tuesday to the School Teachers' Review Body, Mr Johnson says he is ruling out a separate review of the current settlement.

'Unfair'

But he says that the pay body should "consider these concerns - alongside other evidence about retention and recruitment and the impacts on budgets - when making recommendations for the next pay award".

The NUT accused the government of breaking its promises over pay - saying teachers had "trusted the government to live up to its word - instead once again they have been targeted for unfair treatment".

"The government's decision to refuse to re-open the September award is a breach of honour. It had agreed a recommendation that if inflation exceeded 3.25% then the award could be looked at again.

"With inflation currently running at well in excess of 4%, teachers face another pay cut if the settlement of 2.5% is imposed on them in September."

And the union said it would be writing to the TUC to call for a meeting with other teachers' unions.

But the NASUWT teachers' union said that re-opening the current pay arrangements had always been "unlikely".

The union said that "rolling up" these concerns in the next pay round "means the pressure is really now on for the review body".

Mr Johnson says his refusal to re-open the current pay arrangements is because of the "expectations of inflation over the whole pay-award period" and because teachers' pay already "represents a better outcome than that envisaged in the government's pay policy for public sector workers".