Classroom assisatants to strike in the North

Schoolchildren across the North face disruption after classroom assistants said they had opened a ballot for a strike when the new term begins next month.

Public service union NIPSA said today they had started the process leading to industrial action if a dispute over pay isn’t resolved.

The decision was taken after a pay offer from the five education boards - sanctioned by the Department of Education – aimed at ending a pay wrangle which has been going on for 12 years, was rejected.

NIPSA Assistant Secretary Alison Millar said: “NIPSA isn’t in the business of seeking to disrupt the learning of our children, however, after almost 13 years classroom assistants have been left with no alternative.”

The boards’ offer was unanimously rejected in June and she said the authorities had failed to take the opportunity to resolve the impasse over the summer break.

Union officials today opened the statutory ballot and called for sustained industrial protest.

Some 7,000 classroom assistants have been waiting since 1995 to hear how much their pay will increase under a job evaluation exercise.

The strike ballot decision was taken following a series of 14 consultation meetings across education and library board areas during which classroom assistants unanimously rejected the offer which the union claimed would result in thousands of staff losing wages.

Ms Millar added: “At a further meeting with the boards this morning no substantive progress improvement was made to avoid this dispute.

“This is regrettable and I believe the boards need to seriously consider their position and the impact of not resolving this dispute will have on the learning of our children.

“It is up to the boards to resolve this issue by putting a fair and acceptable offer to NIPSA”.

The job evaluation exercise was the final phase of a major programme of job evaluation across all posts in education boards to ensure jobs were graded in a consistent manner and that jobs of equal value received equal pay.

A total of £30m (€44m) has been set aside by the Department of Education and minister Catriona Ruane gave the go-ahead for a pay offer to be made back in May.

Once the offer was made, NIPSA said they were strongly disputing the five boards’ intention to seek a change in how hourly rates of pay were calculated but in the future and retrospectively.

They said they were also opposing the removal of the Special Needs Allowance - paid to assistants who deal with children who have varying special needs.

And they added that they opposed the insistence by the boards that NVQ111 was not a requisite for the job – in evaluation terms – but that it was included as an essential criteria when posts for classroom assistants were advertised.