UNISON Cymru/Wales today called on the Welsh government to implement a Wales-wide school support staff structure that would include consistent job profiles and pay for members of the schools workforce.
UNISON represents more education staff than any other union in the UK including 17,000 school support staff in Wales.
Jess Cromie, UNISON Cymru/Wales head of wchools, said: “UNISON has long argued the case for a national structure for support staff in Wales and so we are pleased to see that the Welsh government’s dducation bill is at least going some way towards that.
“There will be positives, however, some of the issues that go hand in hand with the registration of school support staff are thorny and we currently have a lot of unanswered questions that need answers before we can progress any further.
“As far UNISON is concerned, the registration of school support staff is completely meaningless unless key issues are addressed and there is an actual understanding of what those members of staff do in their day to day jobs. We don’t have the confidence that there is sufficient understanding at the moment.
“There are so many school support staff jobs paid at so many different pay rates and we don’t believe that the Welsh government has got to grips with this at all yet. Our view is that a Wales-wide national structure that includes consistent job profiles and pay could be the key to unlock this.
“We obviously have concerns around the possibility of registration fees for staff and UNISON is clear that we do not believe that any fee should be applied to support staff, particularly when you consider that their terms and conditions are far inferior to those enjoyed by qualified teaching staff.
“Many of our school support staff members, who are primarily women, receive low pay, are paid during term time only, and have very little access to any education or development. To expect them to be monitored by a registration process in line with teachers would be grossly unfair unless those inequity issues are addressed.
“School support staff are a critical part of the schools workforce, yet they are often undervalued. They deserve to be treated with fairness.”
At the union’s annual school support staff conference in Cardiff, a UNISON delegate from Neath Port Talbot, said: ”I am already having my weekly working hours reduced from 37 to 32 and my pay is going from 52 weeks per year to term-time only.
“Being expected to pay registration fees on top of that is obviously a concern to me when my household budget is already going to be squeezed to the limit.
“I am also worried about what the introduction of registration will mean. I don’t think that it would be fair for me to go through a public hearing if, say, a malicious accusation is made against me.
“At the end of the day, mud sticks and it would affect my future job prospects.”
