Cleaners consider strike as Ark cancels wage agreement

One of England’s most influential academy trusts has stopped offering the real living wage to staff this year, blaming stretched budgets and falling rolls.

Ark Schools, which runs 39 schools, made the admission as cleaners in one of its London academies vote on whether to strike over the move.

The union representing the workers argued that the pay changes have forced the lowest paid “to shoulder the burden of financial pressures while others higher up the organisation remain protected”.