West
Midlands Schools Team Bulletin Spring/Summer 2023
Over the past 12 years, council and school staff have lost on average 25% from the value of their pay when measured against the Retail Price Index (RPI) measure of inflation since 2010.
UNISON has been campaigning for a decent pay rise for council and school workers. This year we called for a pay increase of inflation plus 2%, this would amount to 12.7%. However, the local government employers have responded with an offer of a flat rate increase of £1,925 (with less for part-time and term-time workers). In a cost-of-living crisis this simply is not good enough.
UNISON members who receive NJC pay rises will receive ballot papers during the last week of May to vote whether to take industrial action. Please complete and return your ballot paper. A strong response will send a clear message to the employers that deserve a decent pay rise.
You can also email your local Councillor directly asking for support by going online at this address:
https://action.unison.org.uk/page/120529/ac tion/1
There will also be a Lobby of parliament on the 20th of June with the joint education trade unions over funding for schools.
Thrive Education Partnership (MAT) Staff Conference
The West Mids schools team recently attended the staff conference for Thrive where we met hundreds of members and signed up some new ones. We were able to give lots of free goodies and advice to our members at the event and signed up two new UNISON contacts. Matt Ensor the steward based Calthorpe school sports college was also at the event greeting and bringing members to meet us. This Academy has schools in Birmingham, Coventry, Warwick, and Walsall.
Members can contact their UNISON branch for advice on the following numbers:
Birmingham: tel:0121 200 3331
Coventry: tel:02476 550829
Warwick: tel:01926 412199
Walsall: tel:01922 322151
As part of your membership package with UNISON we offer many free courses aimed at our members in schools. Many employers across the region participate and allow staff time off during working hours to attend these courses as they are based on useful work-related topics which will enhance your current role and facilitate development. Our latest courses in May are full but we will have further free courses in November based on topics such as Autism awareness, Conflict management, ADHD, and special educational needs. You can also sign up to a variety of free courses online by visiting our website https://learning.unison.org.uk/learning-online/
Stewards and Contacts: We need you!
As part of building and maintaining a strong union we need workplace contacts and Stewards.
The role of a workplace contact is to let your branch know what's happening in your workplace, and to help the union get messages to its’ members. It's a good learning opportunity and starting point to get involved in the union.
The Role of steward is to provide advice, support, and representation on workplace issues. Full training and support are provided by UNISON.
We need contacts and Stewards in the following Multi Academy trusts:
• Birmingham Diocese MAT
• The Arthur Terry Learning Partnership
• Windsor Academy
Please contact us by email on: wmschoolsteam@unison.co.uk
Many workers at United Learning chain losing out on wages.
England’s Largest Academy Trust Withholding backpay from Staff says UNISON.
United Learning Trust (ULT) – England’s largest school academy chain – is withholding £1.5m in back pay from employees, says UNISON. The union has now launched a grievance on behalf of more than 3,000 support staff across the country against ULT, which runs 70 schools with more than 40,000 pupils.
UNISON is seeking up to £800 for each worker including teaching assistants, librarians, and school technicians. This is the amount the union says ULT owes in back pay following the 2022/23 national pay award.
The Local Government Association deal agreed in November applies to the year from 1 April 2022 and most academy chains have backdated the new rate to take effect from this date.
Dispute with NEU recruiting school support staff and intervening in pay negotiations.
The TUC passed judgment to reaffirmed that the NJC unions (GMB, UNISON and Unite) have exclusive bargaining rights for school support staff. It also explicitly stated that, in future, the NEU should take no action that could be regarded as organising activity among these workers.
This shows the importance of being a UNISON member so you can have a say over your pay in the forthcoming pay ballots.
However, UNISON says ULT has done this for just a fraction of its workforce – those who work at schools that have been taken over by the trust from councils.
All staff on the academy trust’s contracts have been paid the increase only from September* onwards.
The union says the education charity is creating a twotier workforce by implementing different pay award dates. UNISON says ULT can afford the £1.5m needed for all support staff to receive the amount paid to colleagues doing the same job.
