Workers win at "free school"

Submitted by AWL on 3 February, 2014 - 12:58

Teachers at a London “free school” have won a hugely important victory in a dispute with their employers.

“STEM 6” Academy in Islington, a school for 16-19 year olds, was refusing to recognise unions and imposing what were effectively zero hours contracts on staff. Teachers at the school asked to be balloted by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) after their employers said there would be “legal consequences” if they failed to sign a new contract before Christmas.

Included the contract was a paragraph which stated: “The school reserves the right to temporarily lay you off from work without normal contractual pay or to reduce your normal working hours and reduce your pay proportionately. The school will give you as much notice as it can reasonably give of its need to take such action.”

Despite the small numbers involved, NUT members decided to ballot for strikes and named an extensive calendar of planned strikes. The first strike was due to take place on Thursday 30 January, followed by two days the following week and then three days the week after that. When the school first received formal notice of the action from the NUT on 23 January, they sent the following reply:

“We confirm we are not prepared to recognise you on a voluntary basis and this will remain to be our decision whether or not industrial action is taken. We are within our rights to make this decision.

“[…] We trust this clarifies and confirms our position, that we consider any industrial action taken to be misconceived and futile. Please note that we intend to meet with the staff, to reiterate to them, the points we raise above.

We do not wish to enter into any further correspondence with you, save for receiving correspondence in line with your statutory obligations; we will discuss matters with our staff members directly.”

Faced with the reality of the strike, they issued a very different statement on 29 January:

“Just to confirm that we are willing to recognise the NUT and make a commitment to enter into meaningful negotiations about the terms and conditions about the contract and to install a local and national representative within the Academy. We would be willing to sign a formal recognition agreement. Please let me know some dates/times when you are free so we could meet next week.”

The NUT locally has made clear that any recognition agreement should apply to all staff unions and not just teachers or the NUT. On that basis the strike action was suspended. A decision on further action will depend on the progress achieved in the forthcoming negotiations.

Islington NUT Secretary Ken Muller said: “This is a very significant success, not just for the NUT but for everyone concerned about union rights and the Coalition government’s efforts to use privatisation and marketisation to drive down workers’ pay and conditions. It shows that we do not have to surrender in the face of employers’ attacks but can stand up and fight back for our rights.

“It is a credit to our members at STEM 6 that they have been prepared to do this so courageously in the face of considerable intimidation.

“I would like, on behalf of STEM 6 teachers, to thank you all for the numerous messages of support they have received in recent weeks.

“The battle at STEM 6 is not entirely over but today’s developments have taken us a long way towards achieving our objectives.”

This would have been the first strike action to take place in any of the 174 so-called “free schools” set up by the Coalition Government. It is of tremendous importance that is been successful.

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