TA "exploitation" condemned

Support staff are being exploited because of reforms designed to reduce the workload of teachers, a teachers' union conference has warned.

A motion passed at the ATL conference says the Workload Agreement improved teachers' work-life balance. But the conference "deplored" the resulting exploitation experienced by support staff.

The motion called on the union's leadership to lobby for the forthcoming school support staff negotiating body to make sure "all who are involved in the direct day-to-day teaching of children are treated fairly", and reward and develop the professionalism of support staff.

School staff "bullied by managers"

School staff are facing rising levels of bullying by senior managers, according to a teachers' union.
The Association of Teachers and Lecturers - which also has teaching assistant members says bullying can be a serious problem for school employees as well as pupils.
ATL's annual conference voted for a resolution expressing alarm at the rise in bullying of staff, particularly from senior managers in schools.
The union will now carry out a survey of its members to ascertain the type and extent of bullying by other staff.
The conference also agreed that homework for primary school children was a waste of time for children and teachers, and called for all formal homework to be abolished.

Heads and teachers to vote on SATS boycott

Head teachers and teachers are considering a boycott of next year's SATS tests.
The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT)and National Union of Teachers (NUT) will debate identical resolutions at their conferences calling for a boycott of the Key Stage 1 and 2 tests in 2010.
Both organisations have agreed that if the tests continue beyond 2009, it will damage children's education.
Mick Brookes, general secretary of the NAHT, said, "We feel it is unconscionable that we should simply stand by and allow the educational experience of children to be blighted and for colleagues to be humiliated and demeaned on an annual bsis by the publication of league tables."
The NUT's Christine Blower said "Primary schools' patience in enduring the damage caused by the tests has been stretched to the limit and beyond." She said it was unjust that primary schools have to continue with the tests the Government has decided to drop in secondary schools.

Unions plead for new pay talks

Unions have made a last minute appeal to local government employers to re-open pay talks and head off next week’s strike.

Teaching assistants are among 600,000 employees set to take industrial action on July 16^th and 17^th in protest at a below-inflation pay offer.

Giant billboards were delivered to the Local Government Association (LGA) saying “2.45% - it’s a shame”.

Heather Wakefield, the union’s head of local government, said Ms Wakefield added: "Our members have families and the employers must realise that they cannot ride out another winter of choosing between basics such as putting food on their tables or paying their energy bills."

LGA chief Simon Milton told local government leaders earlier this month, “I am sure we all regret that our unions have decided to take industrial action. But as there is no additional government grant, we cannot offer more than we already have as to do so would mean cuts in services or unacceptable council tax rises. I therefore call on the unions to end their dispute swiftly.”

Unison members vote to strike

Schools could close as teaching assistants in England, Wales and Northern Ireland take strike action over pay

Public sector union Unison – which represents 200,000 school support staff across the UK – has called a two day strike of its local government members - including TAs - on July 16^th and 17^th.

According to the union, 55% of its local government members voted in a ballot for strike action over the government’s 2.45% pay offer.

Almost 250,000 of those balloted earn less than £6.50 an hour, and three quarters of those are women, says the union.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said they were “fed up and angry that they are expected to accept pay cut after pay cut, while bread and butter prices go through the roof.

“Most of them are low paid workers who are hit hardest by food and fuel price hikes, and they see the unfairness of boardroom bonanzas.”

In Scotland Unison members are to be balloted for industrial action after rejecting a three year offer worth 2.5% a year.

Teachers strike advice for TAs

Teaching assistants could be disciplined and lose pay if they refuse to cross teachers' picket lines, unions have warned.

Unison has told its members that legally they cannot take strike action without a ballot of their own, and they should work as usual on Thursday if the teachers' strike goes ahead. But they should not do any work normally done by people on strike.

If TAs want to show their support for colleagues they can attend rallies and meetings outside working hours, said a Unison spokesperson.

Up to 6000 schools are expected to shut fully or partially on 24 April as teachers go on strike over better pay.

It will be the first time that the National Union of Teachers has organised industrial action over pay for 21 years.

A majority of three to one of teachers balloted voted in favour of the action, in protest at the government's pay offer of 2.45 per cent.

Only thirty local authorities in England are likely to be affected by the action - around a fifth of all local authorities.

Some authorities have published lists of the affected schools and others have made predications as to which schools will close.

NUT members are unhappy at pay increases being set at less than the rate of inflation since 2005.

NI classroom assistants' strike could resume

2000 classroom assistants in Northern Ireland are to decide today (Thursday) whether to go back on strike.
Talks between their trade union, NIPSA, and employers have failed to resolve the long-running dispute over pay and conditions.
Earlier this month ten days of strike action by the classroom assistants closed more than half of special schools in Northern Ireland.
Other unions including Unison who have not been on strike are to ballot their members on the employers' offer which includes a one-off payment to compensate for reduced allowances.

TAs strike in northern Ireland

Teaching assistants across Northern Ireland are staging a one day strike today in a pay and regrading dispute that has been going on for twelve years.
Strikes are also planned for three days next week, and if the dispute is not resolved there could be an all-out strike by the 2,500 classroom assistants in public sector union NIPSA
In a ballot, 93% of teaching assistants in the union voted to go on strike.
The classroom assistants have waited more than twelve years to have their jobs evaluated under a job evaluation scheme agreed in 1995, says NIPSA.
They accuse the Education and Library Board - the school employers' organisation- of trying to move the goalposts to avoid paying the back pay owed to the classroom assistants. The employers are proposing to change the full-time working week for classroom assistants from 32.5 hours to 36 hours, which will reduce classroom assistants' hourly rate of pay by more than £1 an hour.
At least one school closed in support of the teaching assistants. Peter Cunningham, principal of Ceara Special School in Lurgan, said it was an absolute disgrace it had taken 12 years to come to this.
He is reported to have told the local paper, the Lurgan Mail: "Our school has 29 classroom assistants and they are worth their weight in gold. We rely on them so much we feel we have to close for the sake of the health and safety of the children," he said.
"I fully support them in their cause and hope this issue can be resolved as soon as possible.
I have said time and time again, if this was a male dominated profession this would have been sorted out within a month."
The strike went ahead despite last minute attempts by the Northern Ireland Assembly to get the issue resolved.

Education Minister, Caitríona Ruane, told the Assembly "Classroom assistants provide an invaluable role and are a hugely positive force in the lives of the children they serve. They work with some of our most vulnerable young people, including those who have a range of special needs. I am concerned that since the Assembly debated this issue in June, and despite my own meetings with both the management side and the unions, there has been no real progress in resolving this issue.
“I am now calling on the employing authorities to proceed as swiftly as possible to implement the new gradings so that these valuable staff receive the pay rates to which they are entitled as a result of the systematic job evaluation process which has been carried out. These staff have already had to wait an unacceptable amount of time. We need to get the money to them that they deserve."