UNISON wins legal pay out for 5,000 low-paid women in schools and nurseries in Greenwich

Five thousand part-time cleaners, teaching assistants, catering, administrative, school meal workers and other staff working for Greenwich Council are to receive pay outs that could amount to hundreds of pounds, following a five year legal battle over holiday pay, says UNISON today (Wednesday). UNISON took the case on behalf of the Royal Boroughs employees the overwhelming majority of whom are women over the councils failure to calculate their annual leave properly. As a result some of the staff had been losing up to five days pay a year. Using European law, UNISON brought employment tribunal claims on behalf of 476 of the term-time only staff, arguing that they had been unlawfully treated less favourably than colleagues owing to their part-time status. The settlement,worth approximately 4m, was approved at a full council meeting this evening. Councillors agreed to revise the formula used to calculate the holiday allowance and pay the correct rate, backdated to 1 January 2013. The problem was first identified in 2012, when Julie, a school cleaner who has lived and worked in the borough all her life, noticed shed lost a significant amount of pay when her contract changed from a full year to a term-time only one. Commenting on the case, UNISON assistant general secretary Christina McAnea said: This is a victory for all low-paid women working in the public sector. What started out as just one case could soon be having an impact far beyond South East London. Laws that began life ...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: News Press release Christina McAnea education employment tribunal Greenwich Legal local governemnt low-paid low-paid women nurseries school staff settlement Source Type: news