BREAKING NEWS: UNISON begins the process of registering legal claims for its term-time members against a Barnet School.

UNISON has made the first step of lodging legal claims on behalf of its members working for Barnet School by registering the claim with ACAS. This is the first step that must be taken before a claim is formally lodged with the Employment Tribunal.

The decision to lodge the claims came after months of local talks had failed to deliver a settlement which UNISON could recommend to our members.

UNISON remains open to a local resolution.

The School has for many years knowingly used a Term Time Pay formula (originally used by Barnet Council until 2017) that has undervalued and underpaid annual leave entitlement and pay for its term-time only staff.

Local UNISON reps in the School have carried out an inspirational role in recruiting and organising the members in the school to challenge this injustice.

Furthermore UNISON discovered that there has been widespread underpayment of term-time staff in at least 51 Barnet Schools. We are determined to ensure that every one of our members in those schools are paid correctly going forward and is awarded compensation for the years of underpayment.

For those members in the Local Government Pension Scheme UNISON is also seeking a recalculation of any pension entitlement under the LGPS resulting from any underpayment or understatement of pensionable service.

On Wednesday 15th January 2020 UNISON lodged collective grievances against 51 Barnet Schools to ensure we protect claims on behalf of all of our members working in those schools.

Barnet UNISON will be organising meetings in all of the schools to explain what is happening and what members need to do next.

 

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