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Is
Your Pay Packet a Little Thinner?
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December 31st 2008
was a very significant day for many of the countries
teachers. It was the day that the payment of
Safeguarded sums ended. For these teachers, the
January pay packet will be the first one that does not
include these sums.
The new management
structures in schools were discussed in 2005.
Negotiations took place between the authorities,
school management, staff, governors and
representatives of the teacher unions. These
discussions led to the new management structures being
formalised and agreed as being adequate for the
school. If an MA was removed, then it was
decided that the job that it covered no longer needed
doing. If the job still needs doing, then a TLR
should be created to cover this post and appropriate
remuneration be paid for these duties.
The union advice on this
issue is clear:
You should not do
any work you are not being paid for.
If you or your school
are affected by this issue, we need to know.
We cannot help you if we do not know there is a
problem.
You can contact us
through the contact link or
by ringing the office on 01629 585086.
You can gain a full
copy of the unions advice to members by clicking
here.
Make
The Most Of Your Money
A
Free Financial Services Authority (FSA) Seminar
This seminar, run by
a specially trained presenter,is to help you
understand such things as debt, interest rates,
different types of mortgage and pension schemes as
well as general tips on budgeting and financial
planning.
No catches. Just
the essentials to help you make informed decisions.
The seminar is on
Wednesday
25th February 2009 at 5.30p.m. in Committee Room 3, County Hall, Matlock.
Click
here for more details
GTC Code of Conduct
You may not know that
the GTC has a Code of Conduct that you are expected to
abide by. This Code deals mainly with Serious
Professional Incompetence and Unacceptable
Professional Conduct.
The GTC has
proposed a new code to govern the conduct of teachers.
This new code is currently available in draft form.
Whereas the old code dealt with specific issues in the
broadest of terms the new code is far more draconian
and far more open to misinterpretation by managers,
heads and authorities.
It includes such
statements such as “Uphold leadership decisions and
school policies and procedures” and “Demonstrate high
standards of honesty and integrity and uphold public
trust and confidence in the teaching profession.”
This means the GTC will be entitled to make subjective
judgments that refer to our actions and behaviour both
in and out of school. And it’s not just the GTC. Who
else will be our moral guardians and have the right to
assess our high standards of integrity?
The NUT does not
attempt to argue that serious, and in particular
criminal, misconduct is never any business of the GTC,
yet the new regulations seem to go to far. Many
of their requirements amount to an unnacceptable
interference in every teacher's private and
professional life.
If you want to read
the full version of the code of conduct and take part
in the GTC’s consultation, you can do this at the GTC
website,
www.gtce.org.uk
The full NUT
response to this code of conduct is available from
this website by clicking
here.
Workload
Survey
Excessive
demands on planning
On top of all this,
staff are now being asked to provide an unreasonable
amount of evidence of planning. These constant
demands for lesson plans and schemes of work shows a
lack of respect for our professionalism as a
workforce. As a union, we believe that much of this
evidence is unnecessary and that on many occasions,
head teachers misinterpret what is expected of
schools.
Although we have much
anecdotal of excessive planning demands, before we can take
action on this we need to know what the situation is in
schools. To this end, you will be receiving a short survey in
your school over the next couple of weeks. We would be
grateful if you could complete this and return it to us.
Once we know what the situation is, we can decide what action
to take.
A copy of the union
guidance to teachers and heads on planning can be found
here.
Fair Pay
The Campaign
Continues
The result of the
ballot is as follows
Number voting YES:
29,813 (51.72% of valid vote)
Number voting NO:
27,829 (48.28% of valid vote)
Ballot papers issued:
194,505
Ballot Papers returned:
57,642
Turnout:
29.7%
Although there is a
slight majority in favour industrial action, this is
not the significant call to action that the executive
had hoped for.
On the basis of
members’ views and the current economic uncertainty,
the NUT National Executive has decided against
committing members to further strike action.
Acting General
Secretary Christine Blower says:
“I am pleased that
many of our members have been involved in the pay
campaign. Colleagues continue to feel that pay levels
for teachers are too low, which means that the case
for Fair Pay for Teachers has not gone away. We will
continue to work with the TUC on the public sector pay
campaign across the board.
With
inflation rising and living standards falling, the NUT
is the only Union which has balloted members on pay.
The NUT, alone amongst teachers' organisations, has
given members the democratic opportunity to take a
stand.
Acting General
Secretary Christine Blower says:
“I would like to thank
all colleagues who have played their part in organising the
campaign and those who voted in the ballot. I look forward to
your continuing support for our campaigns.”
The NUT will continue to
seek to work with other unions and partners within the
education service to take forward the essential campaigns to
achieve fair pay. The Union will, additionally, take its pay
campaign to the Government, the STRB, Parliament and the
public.
Other Action
Whilst the NUT will
continue to fight for fair pay for teachers, this is
not the only sphere in which your union is currently
active. Other campaigns include.
Action on Key Stage 2 SATs
After the fiasco of
the marking of the Key Stage 3 SATs, the government
has capitulated on and decided that the divisive and
stressful testing is no longer necesssary. We
will be working towards a similar realisation for
the Key Stage 2 and campaigning for their abolition
Campaign on
workload
Excess planning,
excessive and unsympathetic observations, crazy
meetings schedules and other workload issues are all
still problems in Derbyshire schools. We will
be taking action in areas where the workload
agreement is clearly not being abided by.
Campaign against
the Academies & Trust Schools agenda.
The union will continue to
promote its campaign for a good local school for every cochild
and every community
TLRs. and safeguarded sums
Safeguarded sums will cease
to be paid from December 31st. Likewise, any work that you are
doing as part of that role should cease at that point. We will
do all we can to support members where there is any attempt to
make them continue that role without proper remuneration.
Join Us
We will continue to build
our membership locally and nationally. You can help by getting
more involved locally.
A good place is to start
is:
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