School support staff in Cambridgeshire are celebrating after settling a dispute with the Astrea Academy Trust over new-starters being offered better pay than existing staff.
The trust had different sets of pay and conditions in Barnsley, Doncaster, Sheffield and Cambridgeshire, where it runs the St Ivo Academy in St Ives, Cottenham Village College and the Centre School, Ernulf Academy and Longsands in St Neots.
It brought in a fifth, trust-wide, set of pay and conditions last autumn, without consulting unions, in breach of the trade union recognition agreement.
The new contracts saw some new staff were being paid more than long-serving colleagues who had been doing the same job for years.
UNISON members decided to go into dispute with the trust in November 2023 and — 10 months later — have agreed a resolution.
It means long-serving staff whose pay was lower than comparators on the new contract have the right to go on the higher rate without changing any other conditions. Staff whose pay is higher than their comparators’ rate in the new contracts won’t lose out.
UNISON Cambridgeshire County branch secretary Rob Turner said: “Staff were understandably frustrated at seeing new colleagues — doing the same work — earning more than them.
“Thanks to this agreement, no members will be worse off and many will gain. Astrea should never have bypassed the trade union recognition agreement but we hope that after staff stood up for themselves this time, the trust will now take a more open and transparent approach to industrial relations.”
