To think teachers should give notice of strike closure!

[Geeds]

I know teachers need to strike, I know they don’t need to give advanced notices, I know the whole idea is to ‘cause disruption’ but surely they also understand that normal working families need notice if they can’t go to work on a certain date?

The school is emailing saying they will ‘let us know by 8am on Wednesday’ about if school will be open or closed on Wednesday. I get 5 weeks annual leave to cover 13 weeks of school holiday, I don’t want to book a day if they then end up open as this will then eventually cost me money when I have to pay childcare in the holidays as I’m out of annual leave. I also can’t really afford the unpaid leave that I’ll have to take it as, if I don’t book annual leave.

I’m not slating teachers for striking, I understand and support the reasons. But AIBU to think they should give us a bit of notice? The strikes will ‘disrupt’ either way, but not giving notice to families is only going to affect the 30 odd parents in your class who also have their own stresses and money worries.

@edithweston @sheilafentiman @winedup thanks all for clarification

Perhaps NEU teachers who work at a school where notice of closure has already gone out to parents will realise that if they all turn up to work on a strike day, the disruption they want will still be caused but they won't lose a day's pay. Only teachers with kids at other closed schools may face difficulty.

Full time teachers are at school (directed time) 195 days per year. Adding on the standard 28 days holiday entitlement that makes 223 days.

You might expect a teacher to lose 1/223 of their salary for a day on strike, but this is not the case. Teachers will lose 1/365 of their salary for each strike day. (Supreme Court - Hartley v King Edward VI College - 24/05/2017)

It makes a significant difference. For a teacher on £38,810 they will lose £106.33 per day instead of the £174.04 (gross).

I bet parents, public, the Torygraph and the Daily Fail don't know this and there could well be uproar when they find out. Maybe even some teachers are not aware of this.

The school (Head Teacher) needs to call it 24hrs beforehand.

If they're shut, they're shut.

Don't tell you half an hour before drop-off that they're open and mark your child as unauthorised absence, no way.

Make a decision ON TUESDAY.

I have no issue with teachers striking for better working conditions.

There's no way you could pay me enough to be a teacher.

Not that surprising - teachers don't get holiday pay so our salary for the 223 days we work is spread over 365 days

Is there somewhere it actually says they need to tell us 24 hours in advance?

Nothing against teachers here, and I think HT really wants to try to keep the school open but I just want to know one way or the other!

How many teachers earn £38,810 on your calculations?

That seems very high.

Uni staff are also 1/365th for strike days.

Most people work something like 225 days p.a., once you take off weekends and holidays. So I assume the 1/365th is a standard strike deduction.

Oh, I quoted the wrong post, sorry @crosspusscrossstitcher

The decision to open it close the school is not their decision. It's the head. The teachers are having a bad enough time as it is without being blamed. Similar to snow.... it's not their decision either

@jcyclops I also think you overestimate general knowledge of strike terms - fairly sure some Mail readers assume strike days are paid anyway!

Unions have informed schools of the number of staff eligible to strike they have in the school. It’s up to the school to make a call based on that information. Most schools have let parents know by now.

Yep, looks like it's the law. www.staffology.co.uk/blog/strikes-and-payroll/#:~:text=If%20an%20employee%20is%20on,versus%20the%20normal%20time%20worked.

@SheilaFentiman no probs

See table below

Still looks over-cooked to me.

Check it with @noblegiraffe they are an hexpert in this sort of thing, and will decide without us having to resort in virtual fisticuffles.

Poor management. The parents at my school had a week's notice.

YABU to blame teachers.
It is the leadership team of each school that makes the decision in whether to open the school or not during a strike. Most schools I know (striking NEU primary school teacher here) made this decision and informed parents last week. The head teacher in each school looked at the certainties of who would definitely not be striking (all support staff, non-teaching staff and teachers in unions other than NEU) as well as the guidance which states that support staff and non teaching staff must not be expected to 'fill in' for striking teachers, and made a decision based on that.
Teachers don't get to decide if the school remains open or shuts.

Data comes from the IFS report whose main aim was to show the reduction in real terms of teachers pay since 2010.
ifs.org.uk/articles/what-has-happened-teacher-pay-england

The report itself takes data from 2022 submissions to the STRB (School Teachers' Review Body)

I don't believe there is any reason to doubt these FACTS.

Your school must be on the edge. Our school knows. If they're on the edge they'll have to wait and see about sickness.

Yes, all so very uncomplicated. Unless you're eg trying to run a hospital and have no idea how many of your staff will need to proceed on this basis on Wednesday and not come to work (even potentially needing to call in sick themselves if they've been unable to take leave in advance). Over 40% of staff in our trust have dependent children, and that doesn't include any grandparents who might also be called into action for short notice childcare duties.

It's a bit of a head wreck to be honest, and in some ways harder to plan for than the RCN strike action as at least in that case there are derogations to help protect urgent and emergency care. I know the aim is maximum disruption, but the potential impact on an already broken NHS could be significant and I wonder how far public goodwill will stretch in those circumstances.

I wholeheartly agree with you OP.
It does not mean that we do not agree with the teachers on their struggles and that things need to improve, pronto and dramatically.
But, what about the rest of us? It should be the government who find themselves in trouble, not the tax payer, parents and children.
The same applies to the train strikes. It is never clear what is happening and, at times last year, it has left people stranded for hours on end as the buses could not cope.
I deeply think that changes to the strike laws should be made so employees can strike, without ruining the day of the users. It should be affecting the company or government, not the rest of us beyond a reasonable point.
We need to turn this in a way that is the livelihood of those in power what is at stake, not the tax payers one, yet again!

Actually as NHS staff im well aware of this issue ... we have business continuity plans in place for this sort of occasion, much like we do with NHS strikes. Of the 40% of your staff who have dependant children, some will have been able to organise childcare, some won't. For those who won't it will be down to the NHS managers to sort cover, exactly as it is when someone calls in sick for a shift. Except they have had a degree of warning to perhaps plan for this eventuality. Im not saying its not tricky, but its ALWAYS tricky when this happens. And I believe these strikes are for the greater good.

Maybe some of the managers will have leave their offices and work a clinical shift. Could be interesting.

My child goes to a special school and they’ve said that (unless the strikes are called off) they will be closed for each of their allocated strike days as they can’t say how many, if any, staff will be in on strike days so they can’t guarantee the child to adult ratio will be safe. I’m fine with that, prefer it in fact to finding out on the day. Both from a practical point of view regarding work and childcare and also so my child knows what the plan is too.

I doubt this will change anything given other more pressing services didn’t - eg ambulance