The government needs to reconsider key elements of its plans to reform teachers' pay if it is to avoid industrial action in schools, according to a teachers' union leader.

Ministers are proposing to introduce a system of merit pay to give extra rewards to teachers on the basis of their overall performance, knowledge and skill levels.

But the General Secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), Nigel de Gruchy, said the Green Paper's proposals on performance-related pay had faced a barrage of criticism from teachers during "roadshows" in which education ministers answered questions about the planned reforms.

"It's very important that the government must listen," Mr de Gruchy told a London conference on the pay proposals. For ministers to move forward with the plans without substantial modifications would lead to "one confrontational position after another" that would benefit no-one, he said.

'No exam link'

The NASUWT did not want to see teachers' pay linked to test and exam performance, said Mr de Gruchy. "There are too many factors outside of the control of the teacher."

However, the union is not wholly opposed to the concept of performance-related pay.

The £1bn set aside by the government for teachers' merit pay increases represented 8% of the profession's annual pay bill, said Mr de Gruchy. "No public sector body can turn its back on that kind of money."

The NASUWT's other concerns include the "sizeable minority" of teachers whose pay levels will be unaffected by the proposals, and the lack of an appeals procedure for teachers who feel they have unfairly been denied merit pay.

Mr de Gruchy was speaking a day after the union's national executive committee met to decide its position on the pay reform proposals.

The government's consultation exercise on the Green Paper ends on 31 March.