Teachers plan to strike 3 days a week for month
HIGH school teachers are planning to strike for three days every week this month.
The move, by staff at Co-op Academy Swinton, in Salford, follows previous industrial action before half term and will once again leave some students learning remotely.
Teachers say the action, by members of the NASUWT union, is due to ‘adverse management practices’ affecting workload, working practices and pupil behaviour, and have accused the school of failing to consult.
They claim changes to the structure of the school day ‘have seriously fractured the behavioural and pastoral systems in the school, as well as having a negative impact on the quality of teaching and learning’ – with teachers ‘working excessive hours and struggling to deliver the best quality experience for students under the new systems.’ But the Co-op Academies Trust says it has already dealt with a number of concerns from staff, including addressing workloads and scrapping the split lunchtime by investing more than £50,000 to provide more facilities to allow all year groups to eat at once.
It says teachers are now hung up on the change to form time, which has been moved from first thing in the morning to the afternoon, to offer a dedicated session for a ‘catch-up curriculum’ – something it says is vital because of the time pupils have missed in school.
Trust bosses say that in negotiations following earlier strike action, union members agreed to postpone further industrial action while an independent review of the impact of the changes takes place, but have now reneged on that deal. They have also questioned whether the strike would still be going ahead if the union wasn’t reimbursing teachers’ wages.
“The NASUWT have failed to deliver on their part of this agreement, instead promoting, encouraging, and funding their members to strike,” said the Trust in a letter to parents.
However, the union says that referring to strike action being funded ‘is a diversion of focus’ and ‘any industrial action is as a result of a lawful ballot, that must meet strict legal criteria.’ “All unions have strike funds to assist members who are exercising their fundamental human right to withdraw their labour,” said Jac Casson, NASUWT national executive member for Manchester. “The cooperative movement are more than aware of that. For them to make this a part of the dispute is more than disappointing and besmirches the proud history and traditions of the cooperative movement.”