Low-paid school support staff across the UK lost more than £2.2 billion in wages last year thanks to ‘cruel’ term time only contracts, GMB research shows.
Teaching assistants, catering staff, caretakers, administration staff and others are only paid 44 weeks a year – and can’t claim benefits during the school holidays – while teachers are paid a salary for the entire year. Other council workers – who negotiate for pay alongside school support staff as part of the NJC agreement – are also paid for 12 months of the year
GMB - the second biggest union for school support staff with more than 100,000 members - analysis shows if school support staff were paid for the full 52 weeks of the year, their wages would increase by up to £4,094 every year [1]. With around 800,000 school support staff in the UK on term time only contracts, the workforce as a whole was down to the tune of £2.2 billion last year.
Following GMB pressure, NJC pay masters have agreed to meet with unions to discuss wages this month – the first time they’ve done so in many years. Stacey Booth, GMB National Officer, said: “Hard up school support staff are being discriminated against by these term time only contracts.
“They miss out on more than £4,000 each - every single year. The teachers they work with don’t have to put up with it, nor do the council workers they are lumped together with for wages.
“For the first time in years, school support staff pay bosses will meet with us to discuss wages. On behalf of GMB's 100,000 school support staff members, we will demand they get the wages they deserve."
NB: [1] Workings:
Mean average salary of NJC pay spines 2 – 11 = £26,228.09
Divided by 52.14 to get FTW salary = £503.03
Multiplied by 44 weeks for term time working = £22,133.41
Difference = £4,094.68
853,813 school support staff [2024/25 school workforce census]
64 per cent on term time only contracts [Govt schools white paper]
853,813/100 * 64 = 546440.32
546440.32*4094.68 = 2,237,498,249
