Durham County Council agrees TA dispute pay offer

Teaching assistants have staged several strikes over the proposed changes

Councillors have agreed a "final offer" in a dispute over changes to teaching assistants' (TA) contracts.

The TAs staged several strikes closing schools over Durham County Council's plan to pay them for 40 weeks a year rather than 52.

Labour-controlled Durham County Council said term-time only pay would equalise pay across the authority's workforce.

Unison will now ballot members over the offer but said it was an "improvement".

The GMB and Unite unions have already accepted the proposals.

The TAs are currently paid for 32.5 hours a week for 52 weeks a year.

The council wants to pay them for 37 hours a week for 40 weeks a year saying this would cover extra hours the TAs clock up such as on school trips and parents' evenings

The council said 2,168 staff are affected, about 78% of whom will see their gross salary increase while 22% will face a cut.

Durham County Council approved the new offer at a full meeting of the Labour-controlled authority

Compensation worth two years of lost salary would be paid, the authority said.

Previous proposals were rejected by Unison and saw more than 100 schools affected as TAs held several 48-hour strikes.

The new offer includes the creation of a new grading structure, training programme and career progression board for TAs with the changes coming into effect on 1 January 2018.

Unison said the offer was an "improvement" on previous proposals.

The union said under the re-grading, 87% of staff would either get a pay rise or see their pay stay the same.

Those facing a cut would get support from the progression board to ensure they did not lose out when the compensation ended.

Unison northern regional secretary Clare Williams said: "It's been a long, hard road, but giving the county's teaching assistants a role in finding solutions has convinced councillors to come up with a better offer.

"Teaching assistants' voices have been heard, and their experiences listened to."