Teaching assistants mount protest outside Durham County Hall over new contracts

The demonstration follows Durham County Council’s controversial decision to pay its 2,700 teaching assistants for term-time only, rather than the current 52 weeks a year arrangement, which was approved by members in May.

PROTEST: County Durham teaching assistants protest outside County Hall in Durham City against the Council's decision to sack and then re-engage nearly 3,000 members of staff on inferior contracts. Picture: CHRIS BOOTH

A final period of consultation with workers came to an end on Wednesday.

Protestors who gathered outside County Hall said there would be a ballot for strike action if the authority did not back down.

They are campaigning against a decision they say will leave staff on inferior contracts with “23 per cent pay cuts for the vast majority”.

The latest protest follows a march at the Durham Miners’ Gala, which drew the support of union leaders, including the late general secretary of Durham Miners’ Association, Dave Hopper and Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn MP.

Kathryne Wray of the County Durham Teaching Assistants' Activist committee, said: “The protest went extraordinarily well.

“The support from members of the public in passing traffic was overwhelming. Cars and lorries hooted in support and even a police car and fire engine put on their sirens in solidarity.”

The majority of teaching assistants are Unison members, but they also had support of the teaching union NASUWT, Ucatt, the Associated of Teachers and Lecturers and County Durham Trades Council.

The demonstration held two minutes of silence at 11am to pay respects to Mr Hopper, who died at the weekend, while they all later marched to the nearby Miners’ Hall to lay flowers in his memory.

Ms Wray said: “The council will report back the results of the consultation which ended on Wednesday.

“If it has not backed down at that point members will be balloted very quickly for strike action.”

The council’s cabinet member for corporate services, Cllr Jane Brown, said: “All but one council regionally and many nationally have already changed to term-time pay for teaching assistants.

“Our proposals are aimed at providing fairness and parity across our workforce and ensuring that teaching assistants, like other council employees, are paid only for the hours they actually work.

“We have a legal responsibility to resolve this matter and have been in discussions with the unions and teaching assistants for many months and throughout the consultation process.

“Looking ahead we will continue to talk with unions and to clearly communicate the consultation outcome and any next steps to all those affected.”