A trade union has warned that education workers could consider strike action during the school exam period if an improved pay offer is not addressed by Stormont.
Unite said “there’s a mounting risk” that its members could take industrial action over the coming months as pupils across Northern Ireland begin to sit formal examinations.
It is calling on the four education unions to “stand and strike together for improved pay”.
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The union said it had begun coordinating its industrial response “due to the Stormont budget failing to provide anything for low paid education workers”.
It said it comes after a “pay and grading review that the education department was instructed to implement to tackle low pay and inequalities in 2018, is set to remain unfunded for a seventh year threatening an even worse staffing crisis in the sector”.
Susan Fitzgerald, Unite regional secretary, said: “This workforce has waited six years for the pay and grading review needed to raise pay and deliver equality.
“Low paid education workers are being told to wait another year – but our members will wait no longer.
“Unite will now seek to progress a common industrial response with the other education unions.
“The four unions need to stand and strike together to win improved pay for all education workers.”
Kieran Ellison, lead regional officer for education in Unite, he said: “Does Stormont believe workers will not see through this blatant attempt to string them along with platitudes until the end of June, after exam season, and into the summer holiday period with no progress on pay until the next academic year?
“Our members will not be fooled.
“If the parties think they can use our members’ pay and children’s education as leverage in negotiations with Westminster, then they are playing a dangerous game.
“By leaving workers no alternative, there’s a mounting risk that the NI executive will engineer industrial action at the height of the schools’ exam period.”
