City of Stoke On Trent Branch - What's Hot - Case Law, Directives & Other Relevant Information
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Annual leave - New Rules |
Term Time workers' Pay Claim - a step in the right direction
Unison put in a claim to the National Local Government Employers for fair treatment for term-time workers including full year pay. The National Employers came back to us in December and rejected our claim. However, Unison has persuaded the employers do do two useful things:
To provide guidance that will ensure a standard approach to calculating the pay and conditions of school support staff
To collect information on the different types of term-time contract issued by employers
This is another step towards exposing the anomalies and inequalities in school contracts. It is not entirely surprising that the employers refused to agree full-year pay for all school workers. However, the Pay Commission has suggested that the national joint council "should investigate issues of pay and reward for particular groups, exploring whether there are instances of widespread and systematic undermining of pay and reward for any given group, for instance, the holiday entitlements of term workers".
Unison is currently taking legal advice on holiday rights and other term-time issues and will continue to argue for fair treatment.
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UNISON has fought long and hard to try and get some parity for term time workers. The leaflet to the right was produced at a meeting below Unison and the relevant government departments on term time working last year. It has always been Government's contention that the withdrawal of job seekers allowance during the holidays for term time workers would be compensated for by tax credits, which take into account actual annual earnings over the year. Unison does not believe that this addresses the anomaly of part time pay for support staff in education. Neither does it compensate for lost pension contributions or National Insurance payments, but it may well assist members on the lowest pay levels or with the loss of partner income. Copies of the leaflet can be obtained from DfES Publications, PO Box 5050, Sherwood Park, Annesley, Nottingham NG15 0DJ, telephone 0845 602 2260, Fax 0845 603 3360. Or you can e-mail to [email protected]. Quote ref DfES/0815/2003. |
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| If you are not already
claiming, check to see if you should. The telephone
number for England is 0845 300 3900.
Whilst we are on the subject of term time workers a few updates have arrived recently. In the National claims arena the Local Government Employers side responded to the term time workers claim just before Christmas. They refused to agree full year pay for all school support staff. They did agree however to develop joint guidance to ensure a standard approach to pay and conditions for school staff and to discuss the collection of information on different types of term time contract issued by authorities. This is not a huge concession but another step towards exposing the extent of variations and inequalities in education term time contracts. Another area Unison has been investigating is pro-rata holidays. It has been Unison's contention for a whole now, that pro-rata holiday pay, which is below the 20 days statutory minimum, contravenes the working time regulations. A judgment of an employment tribunal on behalf of 22 school administrators in Middlesborough is expected shortly. The case was based on sex discrimination and the comparators are male school administrators paid for the full year. |
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Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, an employee was only entitled to leave once they had completed 13 weeks of continuous service (Reg 13 (7)). This has now been revoked following a recent European Court of Justice's decision. The new regulation (15A) has now been implemented. This provides for leave entitlement to start from the first day of employment. This new regulation will create an accrual system that will apply during the first year of employment. During this first year the employee may only take so much of their annual leave as they have accrued at that time under the new formula. That is at the rate of one-twelfth of the annual entitlement at the beginning of each month. Where this calculation does not result in an exact number of days leave the amount is rounded up to the next half day. |
