Unite: Education union workers strike over lack of South East weighting payment

• National Education Union workers seeking pay fairness

Trade union officer employees of the National Education Union (NEU) will take strike action on Wednesday 12 October in a dispute about the failure of their union employer to pay them a London Weighting allowance commensurate with the cost of living in the South East.

The 22 workers, who are members of Unite, the UK’s leading union, are based in the NEU’s South East region and work from the union’s premises in Ardingly, West Sussex.

The workers believe that due to the historic high cost of living in the South East that the NEU’s London Weighting allowance, weighted to reflect costs in the South East, should be extended to them. 

Unite regional co-ordinating officer Sarah Cook said: “All workers are struggling with the cost of living crisis and the NEU should be ensuring that its workers are treated fairly.

“Strike action will result in the NEU being unable to service its members in the South East but this dispute is of the employer’s own making, due to its failure to address the workers’ concerns. Other than London, the South East remains the most expensive region to live in the UK.

“Unite is committed to defending and enhancing the jobs, pay and conditions of its workers and our members at the NEU will receive the union’s full support.”