East London victory over performance-related pay

On the picket line in Waltham Forest, east London

School workers at Leytonstone and Willowfield schools in Waltham Forest, east London, have won their demands to remove performance-related pay.

Pablo Phillips is joint branch secretary of the NEU education union in Waltham Forest.

“The council has changed its pay policy,” he told Socialist Worker.

Pablo explained that “progression will be automatic” without having to jump through the hoops of performance-related pay.

Since the Tories implemented performance‑related pay in 2014, workload has constantly increased.

One striker at Willowfield school told Socialist Worker that the council’s pay policy they were fighting against “allowed management to use vague things to keep pay down”.

“If you can’t get pay progression by working within the hours you are paid for, it is unacceptable,” the striker said.

There has also been agreement over other demands around workload, payment for weekend trips and the reinstatement and improvement of the absence policy.

The victory comes amid a wave of school strikes across England, with coordinated days of action.

 “One of the things about coordinated action is that you feel part of something much bigger,” Pablo said.

“It definitely helps boost people.

“This is the first time I’ve seen the NEU in London coordinate action in this way.”

Strikers from across London have come together for rallies in central London during the strike wave.

“We’ve had a strategy in Waltham Forest of trying to coordinate disputes.”

The NEU strike wave “will have no doubt boosted the schools,” Pablo said. It shows that workers were right to fight and that united action can win results.

Meanwhile, school workers at Lammas school, which is an academy, in Waltham Forest, are still fighting to remove performance-related pay.

They were set to strike on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and then also 1, 2, 3, 4 April.

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