Teachers in Northern Ireland have been offered a 5.5% pay rise, backdated to 1 September 2024.

The offer is expected to cost the Northern Ireland Executive about £49m in 2024/25.

The teaching unions were sent the offer by the teaching employers on Friday and will now put it to their members.

BBC News NI understands that the unions are likely to recommend their members accept the pay deal.

The deal also includes new agreements on teacher workloads.

But unions will also be asked to agree that “industrial action should only be taken as a last resort in any dispute”.

It comes after four unions representing teachers in Northern Ireland suspended planned industrial action earlier this month to continue pay discussions.

Teachers in England received a 5.5% pay rise for 2024-25 from the government in September.

Members of three of the main teaching unions in Northern Ireland voted overwhelmingly for strike action over pay in December 2024.

But unions subsequently suspended action short of strike planned in January.

The teaching employers, who include the Department of Education, Education Authority, and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools, said the offer had been made “notwithstanding the unprecedented financial challenges faced by the education system in Northern Ireland.

“We firmly believe that this formal offer provides a significant and fair pay increase for our teaching staff and will positively impact teachers’ workload concerns,” their letter to the unions said.

Earlier, the education minister said he hoped to finalise a pay settlement for teachers within days.

Paul Givan said his department is “close to finalising a resolution in terms of this current financial year”.

One of Northern Ireland’s largest teaching unions, the NASUWT, said negotiations were continuing.

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster’s The Nolan Show, Givan said engagement with the unions had “intensified” in January when he had “a better understanding of the financial resources available“.

“Within the next number of days I hope we will be able to bring this matter to a conclusion, but I have to respect the processes the unions need to go through,” he said.

The unions’ action short of strike was due to begin on 13 January and run for four weeks.

NASUWT, INTO, the UTU ,and the NEU had balloted their members over what they described as the lack of “a satisfactory pay offer for 2024-25”.

Speaking on Friday, Givan said there was “a different negotiating framework here in Northern Ireland”, which is “not part of a UK-wide process”.

“I’ve had to try to identify funding, which has been really difficult given the pressures that exist within my department, to try and get the funding I need this year,” he added.

“That will be, I trust, resolved soon.”

The teaching unions in Northern Ireland accepted a previous pay deal in March 2024, but that was a backdated covering the years from 2021 to 2024.

In December, Givan said that giving teachers in Northern Ireland the 13.5% pay rise unions had asked for for 2024-25 was “simply impossible.”