A fair deal for teaching assistants?

IN May this year, Durham County Council (DCC) took the decision to sack the county’s teaching assistants (TAs) and re-engage them on term-time only contracts which for many will mean a pay cut. Subsequently TAs voted overwhelmingly to take industrial action.

Members of Unison, which represents the majority of TAs, voted by 93 per cent to strike, while the vote was 84 per cent from their colleagues in the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL). The collective turnout was 64 per cent.

In an increasingly acrimonious dispute, TAs have accused DCC of misleading the public by saying two unions, GMB and Unite, have accepted terms, while one hasn’t. DCC does not recognise ATL for collective bargaining and does not comment on its results. GMB did not respond to questions about how many TAs it represents, while Unite has just two TAs in the county.

“To add insult to injury, DCC has adopted aggressive tactics by offering different levels of ‘compensation’ for changes to contracts depending on which union TAs belong to and whether they have agreed to revised contracts,” says Richard Marshall, ATL’s Organiser for Durham.

Two Unison TAs, who did not want to be named, say they feel DCC is attempting to devalue their work.

“They’ve even taken to calling us ‘classroom helpers’ instead of ‘teaching assistants’ because they want to distance us from the word ‘teaching’,” says Mary.

“We regularly plan and take classes when teachers are absent. Head teachers often use us to save the school the cost of hiring expensive supply teachers.”

Ann says a lot of people think they tidy classrooms before and after lessons and that is the extent of their role.

“They don’t realise that most of us are highly experienced and trained in specialised areas,” she says.

“For example, I have expertise in autism and looking after other children with special needs. That’s not training teachers have received, so they are absolutely reliant on us to help children with complex requirements.”

In a 2012 re-evaluation, most of the region’s local authorities re-graded TAs so that they would not lose pay when they were switched to term-time contracts. DCC took part, but did not make the same provision for its TAs, resulting in the current exercise, which the county says will protect it against equal-pay claims from other school staff already on term-time only contracts.

Durham County Councillor Owen Temple says he is “dubious” about the potential risk of equal pay claims from other staff.

“Since the 2012 re-evaluation the council has never had a pay claim where another employee uses a TA as a comparator, nor can they quote me a successful claim with a TA as comparator anywhere in the country,” he says.

Meanwhile, Dr Mary Bousted, ATL’s general secretary, says that if the council pushes ahead with its “ill thought through” plans many TAs will no longer be able to afford to work and children will lose out.

“We urge DCC to get around the table and negotiate a fair deal for its teaching assistants. It is not too late to do so,” she adds.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis says many people across Durham understand what a difference teaching assistants make to the lives of the children they work with.

“Parents, teachers and children value that work, Unison values that work, now the county council must value it too,” he says.

Margaret Whellans, interim corporate director of children and young people’s services at Durham County Council, says it has undertaken extensive negotiations resulting in a revised final compensation offer, which was accepted by two unions and developed with the conciliation service ACAS.

“UNISON balloted 1,755 members with 973 responding and a high proportion of those who replied voting for strike action – we have respected the outcome of these ballots and it is disappointing to be criticised for doing so. We have been recruiting on the new terms since June and no problems have been experienced resulting in all vacant posts being filled.

“Throughout this process we have assisted TAs and headteachers on options regarding regrading, but this is a matter for the individual TA and their school.

“The threat of equal pay claims is very real. Since 2009 we have had more than 5,780 equal pay claims. If we do not deal with this it could result in many thousands more, costing the council tens of millions of pounds.

“We greatly value all our TAs, but we have no choice but to address this situation and pay staff only for the hours they work, as have all but one other council regionally and many nationally. Our focus now is on working with leadership teams and school governors to minimise the impact any strike action on the education of children and young people.”

Mary says TAs are not asking for more money and there is a way out of the dispute for the council.

“We’re just asking to be paid what we currently earn. All councillors have to do is re-grade us so that we keep our salaries. It’s a simple solution.”