Support staff at a Sudbury primary school have called off further strikes after accepting a new deal saving most of their jobs, UNISON announces today.
Two dozen classroom assistants and midday supervisors at Pot Kiln Primary took three days of strikes in April and May after the school announced plans to sack 15 staff to cope with a funding gap and falling student numbers.
More than 600 parents and members of the local community backed a petition against the cuts which the strikers handed in to Suffolk County Council last month.
The union agreed to suspend further strikes for talks at conciliation service Acas. The school has now reduced the number of job losses to three and the staff affected are willing to take redundancy.
UNISON Eastern regional organiser Winston Dorsett said: “It was always wrong to make these vital workers pay for Pot Kiln’s financial mismanagement and it shouldn’t have taken strikes to make the school sit up and listen.
“But support staff have shown that by standing together they can defend their jobs and their students’ education.
“We’d like to thank the parents, children and local community for the huge support they’ve shown throughout this dispute.”
