More than 2,500 general and special needs classroom assistants are not moving to permanent contracts despite more than four years of service

Unite has called on education minister Paul Given to intervene to end precarious ‘temporary’ working among school support workers.

The union has made public (here) figures supplied to trade unions by the Education Authority which has revealed widespread reliance on temporary working for staff such as nursery, general and classroom assistants in schools. Many of those working under such poor practices do not receive pay during school holiday periods and have little job security from one year to the next.

Given the predominant female composition of the workforce, the union highlighted major concerns that women workers were being treated in a such a problematic manner.

More than two-thirds (14,930 of 21,815) of those working as assistants in schools are on temporary contracts. Reliance on precarious temporary workers is greatest among general assistants at 85 per cent. Twelve per cent of the total workforce were temporary workers despite having four years’ service. That figure includes more than 2,500 classroom assistants of whom more than 1,800 have responsibilities for Special Educational Needs children.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “These statistics reveal the widespread use of precarious temporary working practices for the recruitment of school support staff. The scale of this issue raises real questions about why a predominantly female workforce in our schools – including those with responsibilities for children with special educational needs – are being treated so poorly by a public body.”