MODEL PAY CLAIM FOR NON NJC ACADEMIES
SUBMITTED BY UNISON TO[NAME OF ACADEMY TRUST]
1. INTRODUCTION
This pay claim is submitted by UNISON on behalf of support staff working for [academy trust].
The claim is set at a level that we believe recognises the following key points:
-Major increases in the cost of living over recent years have significantly reduced the value of support staff wages at [academy trust].
-Appropriate reward is needed to sustain the morale and productivity of support staff in their crucial role of supporting and delivering of front line education services at [academy trust].
-Average pay settlements across the economy and in sectors that compete to recruit typical support staff roles have been running well in excess of recent National Joint Council settlements for local authority and school support staff[1]
-Approaching half of all schools across the UK are now committed to paying a Living Wage as a basic minimum for their staff - this includes a large number of academies
2. SUMMARY OF CLAIM
We are seeking to ensure that [academy trust]implements changes to pay, terms and conditions that, as a minimum, are in line with thetrade union claim made to the National Joint Council (NJC)for pay and allowancesin 2016/17.
The key points of our claim are as follows:
- Deletion of pay points which fall below the level of the UK Living Wage [replace with “ Deletion of Greater London Provincial Council pay points below London Living Wage” where employer is in Greater London] and a flat rate increase of £1 per hour on all other pay points
- A commitment by [academy trust]to abide by any joint review of term time workingconducted by the NJC to deliver fair treatment for school support staff through fair, consistent and transparent contracts
- Agreement of a timetable for [academy trust]to become an accredited Living Wage employer – see section 4 of this claim
3. FALLING VALUE OF SUPPORT STAFF PAY
The table below demonstrates the huge fall in living standards suffered by support staff. Between 2010 and 2016,support staff pay in schools that implemented NJC pay awardsrose by just4.2%,while the total cost of living grew by21.3%.
Year / [academy trust]pay increases[The figures below are NJC increases, if local rates have varied from these, please amend] / Rise in cost of living
(as measured by Retail Prices Index)
2010 / 0% / 4.6%
2011 / 0% / 5.2%
2012 / 0% / 3.2%
2013 / 1% / 3.0%
2014 / 0% / 2.4%
2015 / 2.2% / 1.0%
2016 / 1% / 1.7%*
* Forecast annual RPI for 2016 according to HM Treasury, Forecasts for the UK Economy, August 2016
This means that the value of many support staff salaries today are worth thousands of pounds less than they were five years ago. A UNISON survey of 15,000 school support staff in 2014, found that the average wage of a full-time member of staff paid for term only was approximately £14,200. For such an employee who has received NJC pay rises, the impact of inflation over the last six years has been to reduce the buying power of wages by £2,638.
Recent studies also show that those on low incomes have suffered inflation rates that are 1% higher than the average over recent years because of the rapid rise in basic costs such as food, energy and transport[2], eroding the value of wages for low-paid staff even further.
Treasury forecasts indicate that the cost of living is set to rise significantly once more, withthe 2017 rate hitting 2.8% followed by an acceleration to 3% or over every year between 2018 and 2020, in line with the pattern below.
Source: HM Treasury Forecasts for the UK Economy, August 2016
4. LIVING WAGE BECOMING STANDARD ACROSS SCHOOLS
The Living Wagehas become the standard benchmark for the minimum needed for low- paid staff to have a “basic but acceptable” standard of living.
There are two national Living Wage figures that are set independently each year as follows:
- The rate for outside London (currently £8.25 per hour) set by Loughborough University using Minimum Income Standard methodology developed by the Family Budget Unit and funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- The London Living Wage (currently £9.40 per hour) set by the Greater London Authority
The importance of these rates in tackling low pay among school support staff was confirmed by the UNISON survey referred to above, which found that 17% of school support staff received pay so low that they qualified for in-work benefit payments.
Staff in more than 12,000 schools across the UK are set to be paid the Living Wage as a result of landmark agreements between UNISON and school employers. This accounts for approaching50% of schools.
Living Wage arrangements have now been reached with over half of all councils, the Catholic Church, the Church of England, the Schools Cooperative Society and Multi Academy Trusts including Oasis Community Learning, Academies Enetrprise Trust (AET) Reach 2 Academy Trustamoungst many more. As a result, school staff such as cleaners, administration staff, some teaching assistants and catering staff will be paid the Living Wage.
Not only does the Living Wage deliver fairness for low paid staff, it has clear benefits for employers, as studies have consistently found an increase in productivity and a reduction in staff turnover and absenteeism rates.
What does becoming a Living Employer involve?
There are two steps that a school has to take to become a Living Wage employer.
- Firstly, you need to ensure that all directly employed staff are paid no less than the Living Wage.
- Secondly, a plan must be in place to ensure that all staff employed by contractors providing a service(s) for the school on a regular basis, are paid the Living Wage by a target date.
UNISON has produced a step-by-step guide to becoming an accredited Living Wage employer for schools. This Guide can be downloaded from the UNISON website
[The government introduced a legally enforceable “national living wage” of £7.20 an hour for employees aged 25 and above from April 2016. However, in reality this rate is a higher version of the national minimum wage which is calculated without reference to the cost of living. The living wage announced annually by the Living Wage Foundation remains the most accurate indicator of the wage needed to achieve a basic but acceptable standard of living.]
5. STORING UP RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION PROBLEMS
The ability of [academy trust] to attract and retain support staff in the long term will be damaged if the pay of its staff falls behind the going rate in the labour market.
The table below shows that pay settlements over the last year across the economy have been running at 2%.A sample of economic sectors that can provide alternative career options for some support staff roles shows pay settlement rates varying between 2% and 2.3%.
Sector / Average reported pay settlementsAcross economy / 2.0%
Private sector / 2.0%
Retail & wholesale / 2.3%
Transportation & storage / 2.0%
Information & communication / 2.0%
Admin & support services / 2.0%
Source: Labour Research Department, based on reported settlements in sector over last year
In order to remain competitive with wages across the economy, academies will need to keep up with average earnings growth, which is predicted to rise across the economy at 3.6% in2017and remain at similar levels until 2020, following the pattern shown below.
Source: Office for Budgetary Responsibility, Economic and Fiscal Outlook, March 2016
6. DAMAGE TO SERVICES AND STAFFING
The 2016UNISON survey of more than 100,000 school support staff from the across the UK found a professional, committed, but demoralised workforce that harbours serious concerns about the impact of increased workload on their ability to adequately support students.
Key findings from survey:
- More than half (52%) of staff responding to the survey said they had experienced stress, anxiety or depression as they struggle to cope with their workloads
- Two-fifths (41.5%) said they had difficulty in completing their work, and more than one in eight (13.4%) said they found it impossible to manage all that was being asked of them.
- Almost half(47%) said they were considering leaving their jobs, citing issues like low pay, stress and huge workloads.
- Many said it was difficult to talk about the pressures of their jobs, with two-fifths (40%) saying they felt unable to report concerns about the size of their workload to managers.
UNISON believes these findings highlight a crisis in health and well-being engulfing schools, which could lead to a mass exodus of hardworking, dedicated staff unless urgent action is taken
[Insert any further local evidence of workload and stress placed on school support staff]
Coupled with the falling relative rates of pay noted above, these trends present a serious threat in the long term to the ability of[academy trust]to recruit and retain high calibre members of staff and to provide a consistent quality of education for children.
[Turnover rates in the public sector are estimated at 10%, so if you have figures on turnover rates (calculated by taking the total number of leavers in a specified period -usually 12 months - and expressing the number as a percentage of the number of people employed during that period) that indicate the organisation is suffering higher than average turnover, insert them here]
7. FAIR TREATMENT FOR SCHOOL SUPPORT STAFF
As part of the 2016/18 pay settlement, the NJC for Local Government Services has agreed to conduct a joint review of term-time working and fair, consistent and transparent contracts for school support staff. As part of our pay claim, UNISON is asking [academy trust] for a commitment that it will abide by the outcomes of this review for your term time staff
Our members are critical to the smooth running of all sections of the education system and make a vital contribution to delivering improved educational outcomes for children and young people. The whole school team is a range of professional, technical, managerial and site staff. We believe that treating teachers as full-year and reducing the salaries of support staff by up to 20% through term-time working is divisive, bad for morale and unfair.
These contracts penalise a predominantly female workforce and compound the problems of low pay within it. There are also many variations and inconsistencies in the formulas used for reducing pay from the full-year rate to a term-time figure and no clarity on holiday entitlement. Even within a single authority or multi academy trust, a variety of term-time contract options can be in operation,making it difficult to identify who is being paid what, and for how many weeks.
Added to this, employees are also often confused about their own entitlements due to the complexities and inconsistencies in term-time contracts and formulas. Holiday entitlement suffers from a lack of legal clarity: term-timers are in continuous employment, unable to claim out-of-work benefits, but able to claim in-work benefits. It follows that they should accrue holiday throughout the year. Term-time contracts make it difficult to recruit and retain high calibre staff and to promote school employment as a career.
Support staff are routinely working record levels of unpaid hours on planning, preparation and assessment, parent contact, liaison with teachers and other professionals, staff meetings and training. Under the School Workforce Agreement in 2003, school support staff gained additional responsibilities to add to a growth in job complexity and professionalisation since the 1980s. The school team in the 21st century is distantly related to the professional/non-professional divide of the past.
Support for fair treatment for school support staff can be seen from UNISON’s survey of councillors and local government officers attending the LGA’s 2015 annual conference. 82% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed with the statement: ‘it is divisive and unfair that many school support staff (such as teaching assistants) are on term time contracts of around 39 weeks a year whilst teachers are paid the whole year’
Our members’ feelings are evidenced in research undertaken by the Incomes Data Service (IDS) for UNISON[3]. 71% of teaching assistant respondents to this survey believe that they are not fairly paid for the work they do. Term-time contracts will be a significant factor in their feelings on pay.
1
[1]The National Joint Council is the joint negotiating body that brings together local government employers and the recognised unions (UNISON, GMB and UNITE). NJC pay and conditions agreements (including annual pay awards and salary scales) are implemented by the overwhelming majority of councils and schools including academies
[2]Institute of Fiscal Studies, IFS Green Budget 2014
[3] .Under pressure, underfunded and undervalued- UNISON members keeping communities together June 2016