Durham teaching assistants may strike over pay cuts

Plans to cut teaching assistant pay by nearly a quarter have triggered a new strike vote in Durham.

Members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) in Durham have voted overwhelmingly to take industrial action over the planned pay cuts.

Unison members also voted overwhelmingly for strike action and will join forces with ATL members to co-ordinate the effort.

In Durham’s strike ballot, 84 per cent of ATL's teaching assistant members in the authority voted to strike against the county council's revised deal.

Durham County Council proposed giving the teaching assistants two years’ compensation for the loss of salary from April 2017, rather than just one, if they agreed to go onto term-time only contracts.

But union members voted to reject this offer last month.

Richard Marshall, ATL’s organiser for Durham, said: “ATL teaching assistant members have rejected Durham Council’s proposals until it comes up with a fairer offer. Teaching assistants are not asking for more pay, just to keep being paid the same amount for their work.”