Unison calls for a living wage for all school staff

Unison have today called for the Living Wage to become the Minimum Wage in all of Britain’s schools.

The union, which represents many school support staff (including catering workers, teaching assistants, caretakers, school administrators and cleaners) is calling for the bottom rate of pay to be raised to make sure that every school worker “can live in dignity and earn enough money to provide for their family”.

Research released by Unison shows that 78% of teaching assistants now say that they do not feel that they are paid fairly for the work that they do, 60% of teaching assistants say they had too much work to do (with 85% saying that stress and workloads have increased). 75% of teaching assistants work unpaid overtime every week – at the same time as a public sector pay freeze hits wages.

More than 100 school support workers will be meeting in London today at the union’s annual schools support staff seminar – as will Shadow Schools Minister Kevin Brennan, who is likely to be pressed on whether or not Labour will introduce the living wage for schools in government.