Today (Saturday) at a meeting of the National Education Union
National Council, the NEU will launch a major national campaign
to improve the pay and conditions for support staff members in
the independent sector.
NEU annual conference at Easter heard the call from members
working in independent schools to actively recruit and campaign
for collective bargaining rights for support staff in private
schools.
The union will seek to recruit and build independent school
support staff membership to secure their statutory rights to
trade union recognition and to support workplace collective
bargaining.
Support staff pay in independent schools can be poor and many
years of the cost-of-living crisis has further eroded living
standards. We know that many support staff are forced to take on
additional work to make ends meet.
It is not only pay that is an issue; other terms and conditions
such as sick pay are often greatly inferior in comparison to
teachers for no justifiable reason. This should not be the case.
Through collective action change does happen. Support staff
members at an independent school were aggrieved that their sick
pay was a meagre six days compared to 60 for teachers, and
through the NEU successfully campaigned for pay parity.
Commenting on the campaign, Daniel Kebede, General
Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“Support staff are the backbone of every school yet for far too
long, independent sector employers have taken their support staff
for granted.
‘The NEU is committed to improving support staff pay and
conditions. We are the biggest union in the independent sector
with over 34,000 members.
‘We will use our strength to organise and campaign for support
staff in the independent sector.
‘There is a growing consciousness amongst our independent school
members, both teachers and support staff, that the best way to
defend their terms and conditions, pensions and pay, is through
collective action.
‘The National Education Union is a modern trade union. We don't
divide & separate, by role or grade. In the independent
sector, we organise by workplace. We stand as one.
‘When teachers and support staff stand together, we make a
difference.
