Over the last month, the East MidlandsUNISON schools organising team has visited 400 schools and spoken to more than 2,000 members about the council’s Single Status plans which – without intervention by UNISON and UNISON members – would have definitely resulted in huge pay cuts for the vast majority of schoolworkers.
Last Thursday, a hugely successful UNISON event in Alfreton saw 350 schoolworkers turn out amid all their busy schedules to impress on county council leaders just why they were being unfairly treated.
This resulted in three firm pledges from the leader of the council which will help you and your UNISON rep to look after your pay in your school.
The pledges which were accepted by Cllr Anne Western and Cllr Kevin Gillott are:
- any designated non-contact duties worked by a member of school support staff should be included in their contracted hours;
- schools should reorganise to redeploy staff into roles consistent with pre-Single Status pay where they would otherwise lose pay;
- pay the living wage.
The coming months will be difficult, but UNISON will be there to support members. We will be offering advice and assistance to workers in every school.
In the meantime there are two things that you can do to help.
- Make sure that everyone in your school is a member of UNISON, please ask your colleagues to join.
- Make sure that you have a UNISON contact point at your school to keep everyone up to date.
