GMB London snapshot school support staff
GMB London snapshot reveal school support staff are regularly being asked to work unpaid hours.
It is clear that our schools struggle to manage tight budgets and it is only the goodwill of our members who are the backbone of our schools who keep them functioning says GMB London.
GMB, the union for schools support staff, recently carried out a snapshot survey of school staff in the London and Eastern region that shows nearly three quarters (73%) of school support staff are regularly being asked to work unpaid hours.
The results of the snapshot sent to GMB London school support staff are:
1) 73% of support staff regularly attend work earlier and finish work later than their contracted hours without pay
2) 78% of support staff regularly work through their breaks
3) 40% of support staff who attend school trips do not receive additional pay
4) 87% of support staff carry out duties which are not part of their job description
5) 31% of support staff regularly teach in the absence of the qualified teacher, of which 70% receive no additional pay
Daren Parmenter, GMB Regional Organiser said:
"These results show that our members who work in schools work above and beyond their contracted duties at a time when the Government are proposing to make the largest educational budget cuts of £3 billion by 2020."
"It is clear that our schools struggle to manage tight budgets and it is only the goodwill of our members who are the backbone of our schools who keep them functioning."
"GMB will be campaigning vigorously to highlight the importance of the roles carried out by our members as we have seen austerity measures in other sectors of our public services which now threaten the future education of our children."
"How can our schools, many of which are facing re-structures, sustain the severe future cuts of between 5% and 30% in their budgets when clearly, as our survey results show, they are unable to pay their support staff accordingly for the substantial extra duties they carry out?"
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Contact: Daren Parmenter on 07725 791833
Notes to editors:
1) The on-line survey was carried out by GMB and took place from 20 January 2017. Over 850 people completed the survey.
