School support staff lobby Parliament

“They brought us all into the staff room and when they told us people started crying. Some ran out the room,” recalls Louise Fox, a teaching assistant from Derby. “There were single parents who knew they’d have to leave the job they love and had been doing for years.” Although she usually spends her time supporting deaf children, it is because of the scene she’s just described that today she was one of hundreds of school support staff who travelled from Derby to Westminster to lobby MPs over their 25% pay cut. Derby council changed school support staff’s terms and conditions in June after they were moved onto term-time only contracts, as part of an equal pay review. The changes mean many staff are losing a third of their pay, some up to £500 per month. The job has gone from paying around £21,000 to around £15,000 per year. Members have already been out on strike, but have not received an acceptable offer; so today they took their cause to MPs. A delegation of teaching assistants went inside the Houses of Parliament, and hundreds more stood on Parliament Square where they waved their flags and heard from several speakers. UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis left the TUC conference in Brighton to join the teaching assistants on Parliament Square. He told them that all of UNISON’s 1.3 million members were behind them and said “these cuts are happening because of the cruel squeeze on finances from Westminster, as the government continues its austeri...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: Article News East Midlands education services local government school support staff schools teaching assistants Source Type: news