Support staff members are some of the lowest paid workers in education, who often feel powerless to challenge the abuse of their goodwill and professionalism.
The mechanism for challenging this is job evaluation, which is the process of assessing the value of individual jobs to determine their remuneration. The purpose of job evaluation is to ensure that employees are paid fairly for the work they do.
This is supported by the Green Book (the national agreement on pay and conditions for local government services), which states “any additional responsibilities (taken on by support staff) need to be assessed against the grading system”.
Your employer will more than likely use one of two different job evaluation schemes, namely the national local government scheme outlined in the Green Book (see part 4), or the Greater London provincial council scheme (GLPC).
You should establish which one is in use to effectively support your members with the job evaluation process.
Actions for reps
Raise the issue of job descriptions at a members’ meeting and have follow up conversations with your support staff members to establish whether their job descriptions are a genuine reflection of the work they do.
If not, ask members to request an informal meeting with their line manager to discuss their concerns and ask that you attend as their rep.
In preparation for the meeting, members should check their job descriptions to ensure they are accurate and up to date, highlighting any duties that have been added on since they started their role.
Inform members that the outcome of the meeting should either be the removal or reallocation of these duties, or a pay upgrade to their role.
If an agreement cannot be reached and the issue affects an individual member, then raise the issue with your school’s management.
If it affects more than one member, collectivise the issue and raise it with your school’s management as part of the bargaining cycle.
