Unions representing school support staff have accepted a pay rise worth at least £1,290 after the biggest failed to meet the threshold for strike action.
Unison and GMB confirmed this week their staff have accepted the offer for the 2024-25 financial year, which began in April.
The deal is lower than the almost £2,000 offer accepted in both 2022-23 and 2023-24. The rise this year equates to 5.77 per cent for the lowest-paid workers.
Unions had asked for an increase of either £3,000 or 10 per cent, whichever is higher.
Failed strike ballot
Unison, the biggest support staff union, balloted its 345,000 member in schools and local government for strike action.
But not enough workers voted to meet the threshold meaning it has now accepted the deal, its head of local government Mike Short said.
Pay for council-employed school support staff is negotiated between local authorities – referred to as the “national employers” – and unions.
The resulting rises apply to LA-maintained schools, but many academy trusts also mirror the deals reached.
The pay rise will be backdated to April.
GMB ran a consultative ballot on whether to accept the deal, with its 100,000 members overall voting in favour.
Unite has not published the outcome of its own strike ballot, but it has been reported the union has agreed to the deal.
Rachel Harrison, GMB national secretary, said: “This pay deal is welcome and must now appear in our local government and school members’ pay packets as soon as possible – including back pay.
“We also look forward to the non-pay related parts of the deal being enacted quickly.”
Tim Roca, chair of the national employers, previously said that under the deal, the lowest-paid workers – currently earning £22,366 a year – would have seen their pay rise by £5,323, or almost 30 per cent, since April 2021.
For those on all pay points above the top of the pay spine, an offer of 2.5 per cent has been made.
Schools to dip into budget ‘headroom’
The total increase to the national pay bill resulting from this offer is £731.70 million, but this includes non-school council staff.
“The national employers are acutely aware of the additional pressure this year’s offer will place on already hard-pressed council finances, as it would need to be paid for from existing budgets,” Roca previously said.
“However, they believe their offer is fair to employees, given the wider economic backdrop.”
Labour has given schools £1.2 billion extra, but this is expected to cover both the support staff rises and 5.5 per cent teacher pay rises.
A school costs technical note published earlier this year said there was £600 million “headroom” in school budgets, which schools will be expected to tap into to fund rises.
