Merton and Greenwich teaching assistants strike over outer London pay rate

More than 1,000 teaching assistants and other support staff from Merton and Greenwich schools walked out on Friday 9 October over the London weighting added to their pay.

The GMB union said staff from over 30 schools planned to gather outside Parliament and then march past the Department for Education (DfE) to Trafalgar Square.

Why Merton and Greenwich school staff are striking

Support staff in both boroughs are paid on the outer London rate. Teachers in the same schools get the inner London rate. Striking teaching assistants put the difference at about £1,400 a year.

Greenwich Council traces the gap back to 1990, when the Inner London Education Authority was scrapped. Teachers carried on with inner London pay at that point and support staff did not. The council called it a national issue rooted in historic pay agreements, not local decisions.

One teaching assistant in Merton said some colleagues were using food banks to get by. Another, who has done the job for 14 years, said the pay was “not fair” and she had thought about leaving because of the money, even though she loves the work.

School openings in Merton during the strike

According to Merton Council, 28 of its schools were expected to be hit by the walkout. Each one would decide for itself whether to open fully, open partly or close, and would pass that on to parents. Staff in the borough also took industrial action in May.

The council said it backed the case for fair pay but “cannot legally fund this increase at local level”. It said the union had asked for a one-off payment instead, which it would not support because of the knock-on effect on other services and residents. Support staff pay is agreed nationally and paid for through government grants, so a permanent fix has to be found at national level, the council said.

Merton added that it had raised the issue with the government and was cooperating with other boroughs in the capital that have the same problem. It intends to seek change through the new national body that will negotiate pay for school support staff.

Greenwich Council said it respected the right to take industrial action but believed children were best off in class. It said it hoped talks would keep disruption for pupils to a minimum.

According to the GMB, Education Secretary Lucy Powell has not answered its request to meet striking members. Nadine Houghton, who leads the union in the region, said staff wanted to explain to Powell in person “the hardship they have been experiencing for years”. She pointed out that the march would pass right by the minister’s department.