A LONG-running and bitter dispute between thousands of teaching assistants and a council looks set to rumble on after the school staff rejected a pay offer.

Teaching assistants last night said they were determined "nobody would left behind" as the tabled deal would have meant 472 people still faced losses.

Hopes had been high among both union leaders and Durham County Council's leadership last month of bringing the row to a conclusion after a revised contract for teaching assistants, which was approved by county councillors last month.

The offer followed months of negotiations and strikes, with the authority agreeing to suspend notices of dismissal and re-engagement, and agreeing a grading structure.

But members of the County Durham Teaching Assistants Activists Committee called on the unions to suspend the ballot saying the deal was divisive as only 78 per cent of assistants would receive a pay rise.

When the offer was put to the ballot of Unison and ATL members, members of both unions dismissed the deal.

Activist committee spokesperson Jan Clymo said: “We now need to be working on the good work that we have already done over the last six months.

“We need to work on that and not take a step backwards. The strength of the teaching assistants collective means, hopefully, there’ll be nobody left behind.

“I know there were an awful lot of winners - 78 per cent - but obviously the feeling is so strong and the solidarity among members is such that we are not going to leave people behind.”

She added: “We understand there will be some anomalies, which we will need to work through, but certainly not the 22 per cent that were going to be losing, in effect.

“From what we understand the figures for job descriptions were put in a computer and different grading systems were spat out, for want of a different word.

“But there was a very big cohort of people, especially those on Level 3 Advanced, which stood to lose up to £4,000. As a committee we want to ensure fairness for all."

She added: “We understand and recognise the phenomenal work and positive strides that have been made, but there is still a little more work to be done.”

The council first put forward proposals to alter teaching assistants’ contracts in 2015 following legal advice that it was at risk of equal pay claims. 

In the latest deal, hammered out following negotiations with the unions, the council set out a 37-hour a week contract and a 40-week per year contract, with pay will be linked to grade, hours and weeks worked.

Under the new deal - agreed by councillors by 56 votes to 32 last month - at the end of two years and following the introduction of new job descriptions and grading structure, it was forecast that 1,906 of the 2,168 teachings assistants would receive an increase in pay.

Meanwhile, 472 people would see their pay decrease, with 27 seeing a loss of more than ten per cent.

John Hewitt, the county council's corporate director for resources said: “We recognise the result of the Unison ballot. 

“We will continue to work with the recognised trade unions to consider next steps and how we move forward.”