COUNTY Durham teaching assistants said they were left with "no choice" to announce a further two days of strike action against proposed contract changes.

It will be the second time members of trade unions Unison and ATL have gone on strike, following another two-day walkout earlier this month.

The Durham County Council workers are striking against changes the authority is making to their contracts so they will be paid during term-time only.

Both unions have now announced a further two days of industrial action next week, with more than 1,000 teaching assistants expected to walk out again on Wednesday and Thursday, November 23 and 24.

Lisa Turnbull, a member of the teaching assistants activists committee, said: "As a profession we want to be in schools teaching and supporting the children we dedicate our working lives to, but we also want to be able to put food on the table for our own children.

“We are deeply disappointed at their determination to push ahead with a decision which will not only devastate the future education of our children in schools, but also the families of teaching assistants.

“Nobody looks forward to strike action, but yet again the council have left us with no choice through their failure to come back to the table and there is no going back now unless they immediately put plans in place to re-grade all staff.”

The local authority workers are striking against changes Durham County Council is making to change their contracts so they will be paid during term-time only – which they say will reduce their pay by up to 23 per cent.

The council says teaching assistants are currently employed on contracts which are unfair because some are working fewer hours than they are employed for and present a risk of equal pay claims from other staff.

Cllr Jane Brown, Durham County Council’s cabinet member for corporate services, said: “It is particularly frustrating given that, despite offering to talk to Unison again last week, further industrial action has been announced.

“We appeal to the unions and the teaching assistants not to progress with this action but equally we would hope that, as was the case last time, the vast majority of schools will be open and the majority of teaching assistants will be at work as normal.”

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: “There will be no end to this dispute until Durham County Council realises it can’t get away with slashing the wages of low paid teaching assistants.

“We know the council is under the cosh from government cuts but they have to prioritise frontline services to the public, and it doesn’t get more frontline than supporting our school children.

“Councillors should do the decent thing and settle this dispute. Schools can then return to normal and teaching assistants can go back to the job they love without worrying about how they will pay their bills.”

More than 100 schools faced disruption during the strike which took place on November 8 and 9, with around 40 forced to shut.

Around 1,000 teaching assistants are estimated to have taken part in the strike, with more than 80 pickets at schools and hundreds attending a mass demonstration outside County Hall in Durham.

Unison has promised teaching assistants they will not be "starved" back to work and is offering £25 a day in strike pay from its £150,000 strike fund.