School walkout Support staff to begin strike

SCHOOL support workers at a group of academies in the South West were set to strike today in a dispute over delayed pay increases, according to public sector union Unison.

- Lewis CLARKE

Teaching assistants, administrators, caretakers, librarians and other support staff employed by Cathedral Schools Trust will walk out today and tomorrow in a row over the trust's past failure to implement national pay awards on time.

Unison says that staff at schools across Bristol and North Somerset have been losing out on several months' worth of pay rises each year, due to the trust's practice of applying wage increases from September rather than April, when they are formally agreed.

Although the trust reportedly implemented the most recent pay increase on schedule this April, the union argues that it does not compensate for what it describes as “years” of underpayment.