Workers seek implementation of long delayed pay and grading review to tackle staffing crisis 

Education workers who are members of Unite will commence a 48 hour strike from midnight [00.01 Thursday 1 February].  

The industrial action will involve approximately 800 Unite members and represents an escalation in the industrial dispute. The workforce is seeking implementation of a pay and grading review which the UK-wide National Joint Council instructed to be conducted six years ago.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite members working as school support staff are striking in defence of education services which are suffering from long term underfunding. The punitive budget imposed by secretary of state Chris Heaton-Harris shamefully failed to provide funding for the long delayed pay and grading review.

“There is no reason the secretary of state should continue to withhold funding from public services and the money must be made available to pay education workers fairly.” 

Unite’s members in the education authority are concentrated in various roles including school bus transport, catering, admin, cleaning, classroom assistants. The strikes are likely to cause significant disruption across many schools. The NJC pay settlement of 2018 instructed that there should be a pay and grading review but this was not implemented.

Following strike action by Unite members in the education authority in 2022, an agreement consensus between unions and employer representatives was reached for its implementation but has not been delivered. 

Lead regional officer for the education authority Kieran Ellison said: “Many of our school support staff members perform highly challenging roles. Despite the importance of that work, they remain among the lowest paid workers in the public sector. The EA’s failure to deliver the pay and grading review has led to a growing staffing crisis with ever fewer staff to support special educational needs provision in Northern Ireland.