A NORTH-East council has warned it could terminate teaching assistants’ current contracts and introduce new terms as a row over school holiday pay reaches a climax.

Durham County Council has been locked an increasingly bitter dispute with its 2,700 teaching assistants (TAs) since last autumn, over proposals to pay them during school term time only.

Unison says the plan would result in a pay cut of up to 23 per cent for mostly low-paid, women workers, while the council says it would deliver fairness and parity across the workforce.

Now, following a second round of consultation that yielded 540 responses, the council has published a report warning TAs it may terminate their existing contracts and introduce new ones. It says: “As we have failed to reach agreement and this is our final offer you should be aware that options for consideration may include termination of existing employment contracts and re-engagement on new contracts containing the revised terms and conditions.”

A final decision will be taken by an extraordinary full council meeting on Monday, May 16.

Helen Metcalf, regional organiser for Unison, said: “People are devastated, very worried, upset, angry and still very uncertain about their future.

“A lot of people are considering and looking for other jobs and careers as a result of this, which is a real shame.”

One long-serving TA, Gillian Iveson, who works at a primary school in the Durham area, said: “It’s an insult.

“There are going to be droves of highly experienced staff leaving. Morale is at an all-time rock bottom and this is a bombshell.”

The council says TAs are paid for working 37 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, but in fact work 32.5 hours a week during school term time only.

Since the proposals were first announced, it has asked head teachers to consider increasing TAs’ hours, which it says the majority of schools have confirmed is now possible in principle, and offered to compensate TAs for their first year’s salary loss.

Don McLure, the council’s corporate director of resources, said the proposals were based on strong legal advice and aimed at ensuring TAs, like all other council staff, were paid only for the hours that they worked.

“We have a legal duty to ensure there is fairness and parity throughout the whole of our workforce regarding their employment terms and conditions and as such we have consulted, listened and will continue to try hard to negotiate an acceptable way forward," he said.

“Most councils in the region have already addressed this unfairness and our proposed changes would see a reduction in earnings of less than ten per cent of their pay for those affected.

“No one wants to take money off people, but the implications of not addressing this present a high legal and financial risk for the council.

“With this in mind we remain committed to continuing to work with our teaching assistants and trade unions on this matter to deliver a fair and acceptable way forward which ensures the council meets its legal and financial responsibilities to all our staff.

“It is important to stress that no decisions have been made at this point and that full council will consider this matter before any further steps are taken.”

Ms Metcalf said she remained hopeful the council would not decide to terminate TAs’ contracts.

However, if it does so, Unison could declare an official dispute and ballot its members for strike action.

In a consultative ballot staged last month, 95 per cent of union members rejected the current council offer.