NASUWT - Action short of strike action

[Meredusoleil]

So I had an email today from the union saying they are going ahead with action short of strike action at my school, from 18th Sep.

Just curious to hear if anyone else is in the same boat?

Yes. Every school was balloted and in many, that ballot was passed.

It's not going ahead in schools that didn't meet the threshold.

I assume - although I don't know - that only schools that did meet the threshold have had this email.

If a member has since changed schools but not updated their details, they must check the situation with their rep.

Realistically, what will this look like though?

From experience of it last time, if your school is reasonable it won't make any difference. You still have to do your job, planning, marking assessment. What you shouldn't do is the extras like clubs and trips. Except teachers like doing clubs and trips so generally do them anyway.

If your school is batshit and makes you do a load of pointless stuff like millions of after school meetings and handing in lesson plans for scrutiny, then this could be useful. However, batshit schools like that would probably make it very difficult for you to work to rule too.

I'm a rep and it won't make much difference in my school, because we don't do compulsory lunch duties or clubs. If people want to run a club or a trip, they can.

Ah I see. I can see this being an issue in quite a few of the local batshit academies than.

I hope they have good reps!

Afaik, there is no rep at my school!

In which case, rep training is free and very useful!!!

I'd rather not be a rep. I've done it before in a previous school. But there were more members there. Hardly any at my current school!

Presumably most of the (small) membership voted for industrial action. Is it worth trying to organise a small meeting, to see if anyone is willing to put themselves forward as a rep?

I'd assume that action short of a strike will be difficult to co-ordinate if you don't have a rep in place.

For those who've been through it, how does action short of a strike impact open evenings etc?

It doesn’t. Working to rule means working to contract which means doing all directed time tasks and any further hours required to discharge your professional duties (e.g. marking and planning outside of directed time).

Open evening is directed time.

Lunchtime isn’t directed so you should refuse lunch meetings and I guess lunch detentions? Break is directed so you have to do break duties and break detentions.

Lunch duties should only be done if on a separate paid contract.

Action short of a strike doesn't have to be work to rule though. Is that what's been decided by NASUWT nationally?

In my previous school, we were on the verge of having a vote on action short of a strike which would have involved refusing all cover- which technically isn't work to rule.

I think this action is work to rule. It's not refusing all cover, it's refusing pre-planned cover, so you can still be taken for emergencies. This is basically the rule under 'rarely cover'.

I'm not sure you could refuse to do any cover?

@Postapocalypticcowgirl that sounds like your staff was in a specific dispute with your employer, rather than this, which is national action at a school level, if you see what I mean.

We do clubs at our school but it os from the directed time budget.
Teachers do 2 x 6 week blocks.

Does pay stay the same?

Yes, you are working to rule, not going on strike.