Workload bargaining toolkit

This workload bargaining toolkit will provide you and your colleagues with the guidance and resources you need to take a proactive approach to bargaining on workload issues in your workplace.

Foreword

Workload remains one of the greatest challenges facing the education profession today. Teachers in the UK continue to work more intensively and for longer hours than any other profession. Heavy workload and excessive working hours are the most commonly cited reasons for teachers leaving the profession prematurely. Equally, school support staff are increasingly being directed to work additional hours beyond their contract and to take on duties not included in their job description, otherwise known as “job creep”.

At the centre of the challenge is the protection offered by the 1265-hour directed time limit, long a cornerstone of teachers’ working conditions. This cap, which is already supplemented by “reasonable additional hours”, is now under threat. Recent government proposals to expand enrichment activities without adequate staffing have prompted serious concerns that the 1265-hour entitlement could be diluted or removed altogether. Such changes would strip away the only meaningful workload protection teachers have, and we must be ready to defend the 1265-hour limit through collective action if necessary.

We will continue to press the Labour government on the need for significant and meaningful change in the form of a universally applied national contract, which places strict limits on teacher workload, and we will continue to work with our sister support staff unions to secure national pay and grading for our growing support staff membership.

However, in-school practices remain a key driver of workload. Therefore, this is a challenge that must be met at the workplace by organised, vigilant NEU workplace groups. Effective workplace groups and the ability to deliver meaningful national changes are two sides of the same coin.

At the workplace, this goes beyond making sure your school has a negotiated directed time calendar in place, although this is an important starting point.

This workload bargaining toolkit will provide you and your colleagues with the guidance and resources you need to take a proactive approach to bargaining on workload issues in your workplace. By using this toolkit and working collectively, reps and members can challenge unreasonable expectations, protect directed time and ensure that workload is manageable.

This is central to our mission to regain our professional autonomy and to recruit and retain the educators who will shape the future of education. As pressures on the profession intensify, and as the 1265-hour limit faces its most serious threat in decades, our work together has never been more important.

Daniel Kebede General secretary, National Education Union

NEU bargaining strategy

The NEU aspires to be a mass, democratic and participatory union with an effective workplace presence. Central to achieving this is our bargaining strategy.

This strategy is to make bargaining meaningful and relevant to members and equip our reps with the tools they need to negotiate directly with their employer at the workplace.

The bargaining calendar and bargaining cycle are the two key methods through which we seek to deliver this.

Bargaining calendar

Once a term, every NEU group raises the same nationally agreed issue to exercise our collective strength to win systemic change. These issues are key member concerns and fit the rhythm of the academic year.

For the maintained school sector, the bargaining calendar is:

autumn term – pay
spring term – appraisal and accountability
summer term – workload

Other sectors can adopt or adapt this formulation to suit their needs.

The bargaining calendar does not specify that a workplace group can only raise one issue at a time, nor does it aim to inhibit workplace groups from addressing other local issues. Indeed, by seeking to normalise union/employer negotiations, it encourages the establishment of formal workplace negotiating arrangements, such as a joint negotiating committee (JNC), as the mechanism to raise all member concerns whenever appropriate.

Bargaining cycle

At every workplace there should be regular member meetings, facilitated by workplace reps like yourself, where priority issues are discussed, and positions agreed. Your role is then to raise these issues with management and report back to members at a subsequent meeting. Members then decide if the response is acceptable or, if not, what action should be taken.

This cycle can be replicated across an employer such as a local authority or multi-academy trust (MAT).

The bargaining cycle

Step 1 – Identifying issues

The bargaining calendar identifies issues workplace groups should be discussing as a matter of course. Specific details of how these and other local issues are affecting members will need to be gathered through one-to-one conversations, member surveys and data requests.

Step 2 – Discussion with members

As a rep, your role is to organise members of the NEU to work collectively in pursuit of your common interests. This requires union groups to make decisions together and democratically, so as a rep, you are mandated to negotiate changes. This happens at a workplace meeting, where issues should be discussed and prioritised. Knowing how strongly members feel and the action they are prepared to take should inform this process.

Step 3 – Meeting with management

Once you have a mandate from members, arrange a meeting to discuss the issue(s) with your head. Make sure you are well prepared to outline members’ concerns and what changes members are looking for. Only make agreements in so far as you’ve been mandated by members. Ask for any agreements to be confirmed in writing.

Step 4 – Making decisions collectively

Hold a members’ meeting to discuss the outcome of negotiations.

Outcome A: If your head agrees to the changes requested by your NEU group, hold another meeting so members can ratify any agreement, celebrate their success and decide which issues to prioritise next.

Outcome B: If you come to agreement on some but not all the issues raised by your NEU group, hold another NEU meeting to decide your next steps (accept the outcome or escalate).

Outcome C: If your head doesn’t agree to any of the changes suggested by the NEU group. You will need to escalate.

Step 5 – Escalation

Hold a meeting with members and go through the options for action. As a group, decide which actions you would be prepared to take to win. This could include signing a collective letter to your head, writing to higher level decision makers such as a governing body, or balloting members for strike action. Contact your local branch about escalating to achieve your demands.