Classroom assistants begin three-day strike

Classroom assistants in the North will return to the picket lines today after one of their unions rejected the latest offer from management on pay and the regrading of their jobs.

Members of the Nipsa trade union will embark on three days of strike action, with the possibility of another walkout next Monday as part of a 12-year dispute with the Education and Library Boards over pay and conditions.

Under the offer made last Friday, it was proposed there would be a re-grading of all 7,000 classroom assistant jobs in the North, with up to 50% of posts upgraded at an annual cost of £3.5 m (€5.04) per annum.