Published:
12:01 PM May 5, 2021
Talks between a union and the trust that runs Beal High School in Redbridge over a sick pay dispute made no breakthrough.
- Credit: Glenn Kelly
Crunch talks between a union and the trust that runs Beal High School in Redbridge over a sick pay wrangle came to nothing.
Striking staff have been locked in a dispute with the Beacon Academy Trust for months over issues surrounding sick pay and policy.
A lack of breakthrough in talks has led to strikes taking place on March 25, April 28/29, and May 4/5 respectively.
The National Education Union (NEU) alleges that staff employed after 2016 receive different - and inferior - sick pay compared to those employed before that year.
Yet, our management has decided not to implement and embed those practices for our colleagues so we are all treated with fairness.”
The aim is to ensure every member of staff is given the same rights – the same contractual rights for sick pay, she added.
Ms Iqbal s co-rep Mr Savier - a languages teacher - is dismayed at how this issue has rumbled on without resolution. They have pushed back a first offer to meet until Friday – after the second round. It just shows that maybe they haven’t put the priority where it’s needed.
NEU regional officer Glenn Kelly also questioned the timing of this meeting. Whilst the union welcomes the willingness to meet, he believes it s odd to call for talks after a second set of strikes.
Redbridge Lane West allotments (Deborah Williams) An allotment home to a long-running charity project for disabled adults is currently under threat from construction work. Plot holders at Wanstead’s Redbridge Lane West allotments discovered last month that energy company Cadent plans to use the land for up to two years while upgrading security at its neighbouring gasworks. This would entail stripping the site to make way for equipment and a car park, which a petition argues would “ruin the hard work plot holders have put in” and damage the land. The petition calls on Redbridge Council, which owns the site, to refuse to let Cadent take over the plots and has been signed more than 2,600 times in a week.
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