School support staff to recommence strike action after Stormont fails to fund six-year overdue pay and grading review

Some school workers are paid less than the national minimum wage when their pay is calculated over 12 months

Unite the union has informed the Education Authority of upcoming strike action to be taken by school support workers. The strike will commence at 00.01 on Monday 20 May and continue for three days until 23.59 on Wednesday 22 May; with further strike days planned in June. The strike will involve more than one thousand special educational needs assistants, classroom assistants, bus drivers, bus escorts, catering, cooks, admin and other school support staff.

School support staff are among the lowest paid workers in the education sector, a situation made worse by the fact that they are only paid during term-time. Averaging their pay over twelve months, school bus drivers and classroom assistants are paid only £11.79 an hour; school cooks only £11.36 and special educational needs school bus escorts £11.17 – significantly less than the current national minimum wage of £11.44. 

The national joint council instructed a pay and grading review be conducted by the education authority in 2018 to address low-pay and outstanding equality issues. Despite intermittent strike action by Unite the union members and protests by parents over the last two years nothing has been done to implement it. More recently and despite a request for funding by the department of education to the department for finance, no funding provision for the review was made in either February’s public sector package or in last month’s draft Executive budget.

Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary, expressed her ongoing support for the school support staff.

“If you average what these term-time workers are paid over 12 months, some receive less than the bare legal minimum. These workers are not paid by a gangmaster or dodgy fly-by-night boss, they are public sector workers. This is an unacceptable situation which is resulting in a recruitment and retention crisis and mounting pressures on the workforce. They cannot take any more.

“Disgracefully the failure of politicians in Stormont and Westminster has left school support staff with no alternative but to return to the picket line to secure the six-year overdue pay and grading review. They can count on the continued support of Unite in their fight to win the pay and grading improvement that they are promised.”

Lead regional officer for the workers, Kieran Ellison, confirmed the strike was the first in a schedule of action.

“While the politicians point fingers of blame at each other, an overwhelmingly female workforce has been left behind and continues to be left to struggle for years on poverty pay and have to deal with pressures resulting from the low-pay staffing crisis.

“Unite members will be standing on the picket lines to win pay justice and equality starting next Monday. If this is not resolved quickly the politicians on the hill can expect it to escalate with further coordination with the other education trade unions. School support workers do not accept any more excuses; there seems to be money for all sorts of political priorities but nothing when it comes to SEN education or the lowest paid education workers.”

ENDS…

For further information or to arrange an interview contact Donal O’Cofaigh, Unite Campaigns, Comms & Press (NI), tel. 07810 157926.