TEACHERS’ PAY AND CONDITIONS
IN ACADEMIESGUIDANCE FOR NUT MEMBERS
This document provides guidance for NUT members on teachers’ pay and conditions of service in Academies.
BACKGROUND
There are currently 17 operational Academies in England at the time of writing (January 2005). The Government has announced that a further expansion is planned with up to 200 Academies in England by the end of the decade. None, however, are planned in Wales.
The NUT continues to oppose the establishment of Academies in principle. Information on NUT policy on Academies, including documents for use in local campaigns where Academies are proposed, are available on the Privatisation of Education section of the NUT website (www.teachers.org.uk). NUT members should, in the first instance, contact their school representative, local division secretary or regional office for advice and guidance where an Academy is proposed.
Notwithstanding this opposition, however, the NUT is committed to supporting and protecting its members who transfer to and/or work in Academies.
This document therefore gives guidance on the pay and conditions of service firstly for teachers who apply for and are newly appointed to teaching posts in Academies after they have opened; and secondly for teachers who have transferred to an Academy which has replaced a previous school at which they worked.
· Newly appointed teachers at an Academy
In all Academies, the sponsor is able to set its own pay, conditions and working time arrangements for new joiners to the Academy. In some Academies, the arrangements for newly-appointed teachers’ pay and conditions are similar or in some cases identical to those for teachers in local authority-maintained state schools. In others, teachers’ pay and conditions are very different.
· Teachers transferred from predecessor school(s) replaced by an Academy
Teachers transferred from predecessor schools are covered by the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981 (TUPE). The TUPE regulations require that, where an Academy replaces an existing school(s), teachers’ previous pay and conditions entitlements transfer.
These include statutory provisions on pay, professional duties and working time and national and local agreements on teachers’ conditions of service, redundancy payments and recognition of the NUT as a trade union. Where the Academy is a new institution, however, there are no transferees and all teachers are in the first category of new joiners.
Academies may also change the conditions of service of transferees provided they can justify doing so for reasons other than the change of status – see below the section on Teachers Transferred from Predecessor Schools.
The remainder of this paper looks in detail at: (1) the pay and conditions of service arrangements for new joiners to Academies; and (2) the arrangements for teachers who have transferred from school(s) replaced by an Academy. The final section considers issues common to and relevant to all teachers in Academies.
NEWLY APPOINTED TEACHERS
As noted earlier, pay and conditions arrangements for new appointees to Academies are not necessarily identical to those under the School Teachers’ Pay & Conditions Document (STPCD) and the Burgundy Book national agreement on conditions of service. Each Academy is able to decide for itself the form of the teachers’ pay and conditions provisions for newly appointed teachers.
In its negotiations for teachers in each Academy, the NUT will seek, as its over-riding priority, the application of the STPCD provisions on pay structure, pay levels and working time and the Burgundy Book national agreement on conditions of service, or closely comparable arrangements, for all teachers newly appointed to the Academy as well as those transferred from any predecessor school under TUPE arrangements. The NUT will, where necessary, consult members with regard to action up to and including industrial action to secure such arrangements.
Although transferred teachers retain their previous entitlements, where they successfully apply for or agree to take up new posts at the Academy then they are in the same position with regard to contractual provisions as other newly appointed teachers.
Pay
Specific matters that you should ask about when considering applying for teaching postsy in an Academy are as follows:
· Does the Academy follow pay teachers according tothe STPCD provisions on teachers’ pay structure and pay levels?
· If yes, are the STPCD provisions directly incorporated into teachers’ contracts?
· If no, what are the Academy’s pay arrangements? In particular:
- Are the pay levels comparable to the STPCD’s pay levels?
- Is there an automatic link to the annual national teachers’ pay increase?
- What are the pay arrangements for teachers in promoted posts?
- Are management payments in addition to basic scale payments or are managers paid on separate bands?
- What are the rules for progression on the Academy’s pay scales?
- In the London area, what are the arrangements for Inner London, Outer London and Fringe area allowances?
Contractual working time
· Does the Academy pay teachers according tofollow the STPCD provisions on teachers’ working time?
· If yes, are the STPCD working time provisions directly incorporated into teachers’ contracts?
· If no, what are the Academy’s working time arrangements? In particular:
- Does the Academy contract include any specific limit on overall working time?
- Does the contract at least match the STPCD limit of 1265 hours annual directed time?
- If not, does it include any other limit on working time eg a limit on weekly working time?
- Does the contract at least match the STPCD limit of 190 working days with students and 5 further working days?
- Does the contract include an entitlement to safeguarded PPA time within the weekly teaching timetable for teachers’ planning, preparation and assessment?
- Does this at least match the STPCD PPA entitlement of 10% of timetabled teaching time from September 2005?
- What expectation if any is there for additional working time in the teacher’s own time?
- Is there a contractual limit on teachers’ cover obligations?
- Does this at least match the STPCD limit of 38 hours’ cover per year?
- Are there any provision excluding teachers from undertaking bureaucratic or administrative tasks?
· What is the practice with regard to weekly meetings?
· What is the length of the lunch break for teachers?
· Are teachers protected from undertaking lunchtime supervision?
· Is there an extended school day in the Academy and, if so, what are the expectations on teachers with regard to work before or after the normal timetabled day and at weekends and during the summer?
· What is the Academy policy on professional development?
· Is there an entitlement to a specified number of days of CPD during the working year?
Any problems faced by NUT members over excessive working time will be taken up by the NUT in accordance with usual practice. Where NUT members have concerns about the length of ULT Academy teaching days, they should seek advice and support from the NUT immediately.
Conditions of service
Other contractual issues of importance include sick pay, maternity pay, notice periods, disciplinary and grievance procedures, and continuity of employment provisions.
Questions to ask include:
· Does the Academy follow the Burgundy Book national sick pay and maternity pay provisions?
· If yes, are the Burgundy Book provisions directly incorporated into teachers’ contracts?
· If no, what are the Academy’s sick pay and maternity pay provisions?
· Does the Academy recognise previous service with LEA-maintained schools for the purposes of entitlement to sick pay and maternity pay?
· Does the Academy follow the Burgundy Book notice periods or are the Academy’s notice periods longer than, or different to, those arrangements?
Pensions
Most, if not all, Academies have or will secure approval for the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, thereby allowing newly recruited teachers to join or continue in membership. You should, however, ensure this is the case.
TEACHERS TRANSFERRED FROM PREDECESSOR SCHOOL(S)
As noted above, where an Academy replaces an existing school(s), teachers’ previous pay and conditions entitlements transfer under the TUPE regulations.
The NUT is obviously concerned at the prospect of two different sets of provisions on pay and conditions for teachers within one school. These may prove divisive and difficult to manage. In the Union’s experience, employers are often reluctant to maintain two separate groups of staff on different terms and conditions and many Academies are therefore keen to secure a single harmonised set of provisions for all employees. The NUT will only recommend succh arrangements to its members where the provisions would operate to the benefit of all concerned.
In the shorter term, the NUT seeks to ensure that preserved terms and conditions are protected for teachers who have transferred to an Academy and who do not wish to sign a new contract. It is, therefore, important that, wherever members feel the terms and conditions of service that transferred to the Academy under the TUPE regulations are being eroded or worsened, the NUT is informed immediately.
There are limitations to the protection offered by the TUPE regulations. The TUPE regulations do not protect staff against loss of employment in the event of a reorganisation after the Academy has been established. Employees may still potentially lose their jobs through reorganisation, as was the case before the creation of the Academy and the TUPE transfer.
Although pre-transfer entitlements cannot be terminated or changed by reason of the transfer alone, changes can be made if they are justified for clear economic, technical or organisational (ETO) reasons. The requirement to justify changes affords some protection against arbitrary changes. The NUT is not aware of ETOs being used to date by any Academy sponsor to change or terminate teachers’ contracts.
Finally, the Government expects Academy sponsors to use innovative approaches to management, teaching and learning. This expectation means that transferees may be more likely to encounter changes to, for example, the school day and timetabling at Academies than at their predecessor school(s). One of the operational Academies, for example, has 3 hour lessons and splits the lunch hour into two 30 minute breaks.
The pay and conditions entitlements for transferees are set out in the following sections.
Pay
Under the TUPE arrangements, transferees’ pay will continue to increase annually in line with the provisions of the STPCD.
Contractual working time
The working time arrangements for TUPE transferees specifically include the following provisions which may not be included in the contracts for new joiners:
· a limit of 195 working days per year, of which 5 days must be non-teaching days;
· a limit of 1265 hours of directed time per year;
· an entitlement to 10% PPA within the pupil day from September 2005; and
· a annual limit of 38 hours on teachers’ cover obligations.
Members are encouraged to seek support from their NUT School Representative, local Division Secretary or Regional Office if they do not believe they are receiving their full PPA entitlement or if they are working over and above 1265 hours of directed time.
Under the TUPE arrangements, local agreements specific to each local authority that provide better entitlements than the STPCD also transfer to Academies.
TUPE transferees also continue to benefit from STPCD provisions on administrative and clerical tasks.
TUPE does not, however, protect teachers against changes to the length and timing of the working day where an extended Academy day operates or against the introduction of a shorter lunch break. Members should, however, seek the advice and support of the NUT if they believe that unacceptable working arrangements are being proposed.
Other contractual provisions
Transferees to Academies continue to benefit from the national provisions in the Burgundy Book on contractual issues such as sick pay, maternity pay, notice periods, disciplinary and grievance procedures.
Pensions
Each Academy’s approval for the Teachers’ Pension Scheme allows transferees to continue in membership of that scheme, even though TUPE arrangements do not cover transfer of pensions entitlements.
ISSUES OF GENERAL APPLICABILITY
This section considers issues of general applicability to all teachers in Academies.
Staffing structures
Each Academy is responsible for setting up its own management and staffing structures.
Machinery for negotiation and representation
The NUT has secured formal trade union recognition to bargain collectively on behalf of teachers at the vast majority of Academies. In most cases, the recognition arrangements also include other teacher organisations.
Trade union facilities time
Some Academies have established facilities agreements providing entitlements to time off with pay for trade union representatives, including learning and safety representatives. Generally, however, such arrangements deal only with trade union duties within the Academy. Facilities time for external NUT duties eg as NUT Division Secretary would need to be negotiated separately with NUT assistance.
Returning to employment in local authority maintained schools
Where any teacher who has worked in an Academy returns to local authority service, the period of employment at the Academy will not automatically count as continuous employment for sick pay or maternity pay purposes. Entitlement to sick pay will not be affected, however, unless the teacher has less than 4 years’ previous aggregated employment in local authority maintained schools. Entitlement to maternity pay will need to be acquired anew through a new period of continuous employment in local authority sector. The period of service in the Academy will, however, count as continuous employment for redundancy pay purposes comes under the terms of the Local Government Redundancy Payments Modification Order.
National Union of Teachers
January 2005
TCHRS PAY & CONDITIONS GUIDE_LC 2 10 November 2005