Rawmarsh Community School facing more strikes

Three days of strikes have now been called at Rawmarsh Community School for next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday—and more are on the way.

Negotiations between the NUT union and education officials on Wednesday of this week ended in deadlock, with teachers resuming strike action with a walk out yesterday.

NUT official Ian Stevenson said: “We’re escalating the action.

“The difference between us was just two and a half days a week for our last remaining member facing compulsory redundancy.

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“He has already agreed to go down to four days and will become the union’s divisional secretary for one-and-a-half days a week.

“So that left just the two and a half days, or about £20,000 a year, which on a budget of several millions we believe was within the margin of error and we could have had a deal.

“But the school and LEA refused, so now we will be calling more strikes.

“The school say if they make an arrangement for the NUT it would be unfair as teachers from other unions face redundancy, but we say that is not a matter for us.

“What is really unfair is that the former headteacher is now employed by the local authority and his wife, the former headteacher on a job share, is still employed as the deputy head of the school.”

He said he could not rule out strikes of four or five days in a week if agreed by members and the union’s national action committee.

The only member of the NUT union at Rawmarsh Community School still facing being forced out is union representative Ralph Dyson, who led nine days of strikes earlier this year to stop 25 jobs being axed.

Members of the NUT voted unanimously to resume strikes when the summer term starts if it is not resolved.

The dispute started when new headteacher Dr Stuart Wilson announced that due to financial difficulties 25 teachers—and nine support workers—were being made redundant at the end of the spring term.

But after some teachers left for other jobs, others went part-time, shared jobs or took voluntary redundancy, the number of enforced redundancies amongst teachers was reduced to just one.