Unions representing support staff are calling for an inflation-busting 12.7 per cent pay rise from April, a £15-an-hour minimum wage and “recognition” for those supporting pupils with additional needs.
Unison, GMB and Unite are filing their 2023 pay claim this week to kickstart bargaining with local authority employers, with wages negotiated between them rather than involving central government – as for teachers.
The called-for hike to pay spines would affect not only maintained school staff and wider local government workforces represented by the unions, but also employees at many academy trusts – which are not involved in negotiations but typically honour the deals.
2022 pay rise ‘wiped out’ by rising costs
The unions want pay spines to increase by two per cent more than inflation in 2023, to ensure gains are not eroded by rising costs. They claim past pay freezes and below-inflation rises have left teaching assistants 23 per cent worse off in real-terms than in 2010.
They warn even a £1,925 pay rise last year was “completely wiped out by rising household costs”, and school workers are experiencing “the fastest fall in living standards since record began”. They also argue higher pay would tackle staffing shortages, with “even some traditionally low-paid high street/retail jobs” overtaking council pay.
But employers may baulk at the latest proposals as inflation cuts into budgets and after the highest award in a decade last year.
The 12.7 per cent demand is based on predictions that the price of everyday goods will rise 10.7 per cent overall across 2023, using November figures from the government’s Office for Budget Responsibility.
The inflation measure used, the retail price index (RPI), is backed by most unions as the “best measure for living costs”, though they have acknowledged its flaws – and government statisticians call it “not fit for purpose”. The consumer price index, the main alternative measure of inflation, is only expected by the ONS to rise 7.4 per cent.
Extra pay for SEND specialists
Meanwhile the unions also want a £15 wage floor within two years, which could mean significant pay rises for many teaching and learning assistants and administrative staff if agreed. The mandatory National Living Wage is currently due to rise to £10.42 for over-23s from April.
Other demands include two hours off the working week, a review of the pay spine itself and family leave terms, and recognition of special educational needs and disability (SEND) specialism in support staff pay. Unions claim a “disparity” with maintained school teachers who receive an automatic SEND allowance of at least £2,384. Only some support staff receive such payments and it has fallen behind inflation, they say.
The pay claim comes only a few months after support staff unions accepted a local government pay offer for 2022-23, backdated to last April.
Eligible staff were handed a flat £1,925 rise, marking a 10.5 per cent jump for the lowest-paid and 4 per cent for higher earners covered by the so-called ‘green book’ agreement covering terms and conditions. They also received an extra days’ leave, with unions requesting a further day in this year’s claim.
It comes in the same week National Education Union member teachers walk out in a dispute with central government over their separately negotiated pay.
The NEU, which has tens of thousands of support staff members but is not directly involved in national pay negotiations with councils, had also balloted them – after most rejected the 2022 pay offer agreed by other unions.
A majority of NEU support staff backed a walkout, but in England turnout was too low to meet government thresholds for industrial action.
New pay pressures on budgets
Leora Cruddas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, said: “We recognise that there are significant recruitment and retention issues related to support staff.”
She said there was a need to “ensure a focus on supply” of both support staff and teachers, including considering how employment practices are changing in the wider economy.
But she warned: “Current budgets do not have any room for large increases in pay and linked pension contributions, so any pay award needs to be matched by an increase in funding, and with both pay award and funding announced in plenty of time to plan trust budgets.”
The Local Government Association has also recently warned the rising minimum wage alone will leave “no capacity to meet the pay-related challenges” facing professionals and specialists higher up the payscale unless they receive extra cash.
A spokesperson for the National Employers, which represents councils, said it would consult them in the coming weeks and respond to unions “in due course”.
Your thoughts