To be absolutely gutted at getting the lowest payrise in the organisation?

[MassageGun]

I am the only person, out of 130 staff to be getting less than 5%.

I have a senior support staff role on a school, the most senior. It's a tough job juggling conflicting priorities and basically any problem that isn't directly related to teaching and learning lands on my desk. I do a good job and always get excellent reviews. Pay is comparable to an upper scale teacher without allowances.

This year teachers are getting a minimum of 5% with some of the lower paid getting more. Good.

Support staff points are all getting the same amount in pounds. For some staff this is up to 10%, also good for the lowest paid, but doing it that way means that people higher up the scale get a lower %.

I'm happy that ridiculously low paid staff will be getting a decent rise for a change, but to be getting significantly less than anyone else in the organisation, including some paid a lot more than me is really hard to take.

It's no one at the school's fault (LA school tied to national payscales) but to say I'm feeling unvauled and unmotivated would be putting it mildly.

AIBU and how do I get over it?

It looks like at least a third of union members voted against accepting it. One wonders where the ones who voted to accept it fit on the pay scale.

Which means that 2/3 voted in favour. And of course significant numbers who didn’t vote at all.As it’s a secret ballot we’ll never know - could be a mix low paid wanting more or high paid, like OP, feeling hard done by.

I said where the ones who voted to accept fitted on the payscale, not the ones who voted to reject.

But the whole point of these lump sum pay rises (agreed by the unions) is to help the lower paid. Which of course means the better paid get a lower percentage increase. I don’t think they are really too hard done by.

There is an acknowledgement there that the OP is hard done by. Which is better than telling her that her pay cut is fair.

Yes, obviously it's not the only issue I'm facing currently, but it does feel like the final straw. I'm sorely tempted to take my six months' sick leave and retire, which is an attitude that shocks me myself, having been thoroughly contientious my entire life.

If you can retire in your 50s you obviously aren't doing too badly. And taking sick leave because you don't like a decision is kind of pathetic.

There is an acknowledgement there that the OP is hard done by. Which is better than telling her that her pay cut is fair.

Didn’t mean it to be!

^I said where the ones who voted to accept fitted on the payscale, not the ones who voted to reject.

Yes you did! And of course the lower paid will be far more numerous than the higher paid within the public sector. They do however, each have one vote!

Teachers are getting a higher percentage - and more in real terms at the lower end of their scales. They always get more than support staff.

Strange how the TAs and first aiders and receptionists are quoted to make points in other threads, but as soon as there's the prospect of them getting a slightly higher percentage (and many will actually receive somewhere around half or less of that headline figure due to their hours) than the highest paid, it's back to 'but I'm more important, I deserve more than them.'

Well quite! ‘My’ 6 months sick leave like it’s a perk of the job that everyone uses. Taking paid sick leave when you’re not actually sick is not a good look!

Teachers are getting a higher percentage - and more in real terms at the lower end of their scales.

That is purely to work towards a manifesto commitment to increase NQT pay to £30,000, in acknowledgement of the fact that teacher recruitment is in a massive crisis. However, that increase has now been wiped out by inflation so I guess we're still screwed in that regard.

It’s a good thing that these TA’s are getting a better pay increase this time then surely

This is completely unreasonable. It isn't "your" six months' sick leave. You're either sick enough to be off sick. Or you're not.
Your dissatisfaction with the pay award is a separate issue - not a "final straw" for going off sick.
If you can afford to retire, then just retire.

Strange. They were taken to governors in September and the appraisal cycle is complete, so the teaching staff get first dibs on the staffing funds before Christmas.

Support, however...

What are you on about, Mooncup, the teaching and support staff pay rises were set out by the govt in July.

What are you talking about 'first dibs'?

School governance. Not all schools that adopt the Green Book (or burgundy, for that matter) make the payments at the same time as the LA do.

And if there's not enough in the pot after the teaching staff get theirs, the delay means that support can have hours cut, contracts not renewed, impossible targets added to appraisal, appraisals not done, then redundancies of those with the lowest salaries or shortest term of service before the payment is actually made, probably nearer April.

And if there's not enough in the pot after the teaching staff get theirs

Schools set their budgets before the start of the year, it's not just made up as they go along.

I am aware that the unfunded nature of the payrise means that cuts will need to be made to education provision, and that support staff redundancies are likely, but that is nothing to do with 'first dibs' and everything to do with which redundancies the school thinks that they can shoulder.

My school has made teacher redundancies in core subjects as well as other subjects, so 'first dibs' didn't do teachers any good there.

Well, yes, clearly they're recommended for approval to the full BOG, usually by June/July. This year for the first time, they had to produce a five year balanced budget to boot, rather than a shorter period, as well. Part of the LA audit terms. And it was known at the time that the CoL for Support was still being negotiated, so there was a greater need for crystal balls than usual.

I'm fairly sure that there will be large numbers of pay appeals submitted by teaching staff that aren't awarded progression this year, though. Not so for most support, as they're so used to not getting anything at all whilst teaching staff always get CoL at the very least, they're desperate enough to vote to accept or abstain because they can't afford to strike.

You appear to be painting support staff as somehow good for putting up with shit pay, and teachers as entitled for not.

However, we know that support staff are leaving the education sector just as much as teachers are, so this idea of support staff patiently 'used to not getting anything at all' isn't borne out in reality.

No. I do think that it's a bit much that some of the few highly paid support staff and people on significantly better terms and conditions are being all 'poor you, of course you should get more as a percentage (which you will compared to the average TA hours) and an extra payment on top to show you're more special than a mere TA'.

But then again, teachers will be sensitive to the notion that they're getting even more than that at all levels, so it's natural to wish to deflect away from that small detail - which is another element of the OP's dissatisfaction - that she's not being paid the same as an AHT/DHT.

'poor you, of course you should get more as a percentage (which you will compared to the average TA hours) and an extra payment on top to show you're more special than a mere TA'.

Extra payment on top? More special?

Would love a 5% ride! We probably get 1-2% or nothing

Apply for a job in the public sector then, there are lots of vacancies!

Yes - would you be qualified to teach secondary maths? A level?
What about Physics?
Or, if not, how about being a 1:1 support TA - supply your own shin pads though.