Nursery World - Durham teaching assistants vote to strike over pay

Nearly 1,000 teaching assistants in Durham have voted overwhelmingly to strike over plans by Durham County Council to cut their pay, which will see some lose nearly a quarter of their wages next April.

The long-running dispute relates to Durham County Council’s changes to TAs’ terms and conditions as it moves them to term-time- only contracts.

There are around 2,400 TAs employed by the council, and around 950 have voted to strike. Members of Unite and GMB have accepted the council’s offer.

TA members of unions Unison and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, a largely female workforce, have been balloted on whether to take industrial action.

Unions say that the proposed changes mean TAs would either be working longer hours for a 10 per cent pay cut or working the same hours and that some of them could lose up to 23 per cent of their salary – around £5,000 a year.

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