This is the first in a series of articles about why you should join a union. You probably here about the big “wins,” unions have over pay raises, but I doubt you hear about the everyday smaller wins that union members achieve every day.

This first article is an interview with a rep that was part of the team that reduced workload at their school

An interview with a rep:

How did you get involved in NEU?

I did a short stint as an NUT rep but left as went on MAT leave.  I became an NEU rep at the start of our Pay campaign.

Generally, what is like to work at your school ?

it is extremely busy. People are kind and supportive but workload since Covid has increased and the behaviour of the children deteriorated through lack of external support for some of them. SLT can be very understanding in terms of personal needs and we have had a sabbatical and flexible working policy for many years. However, people still work excessive hours well beyond the maximum of 48 hours a week from the EU directive which still applies here.

How did you find out there was a problem?

Through informal discussion and members’ survey as well as union meeting.  We are a big membership which has pros and cons in terms of communication with members.

What were your first thoughts?

We first had to pick the main priority identified by members which impacted their workload negatively. There is always a danger that members moan and there is no real plan of action to tackle workplace
Once we decided on the number of meetings, I thought this was going to take some time to change! Our SLT seems to be obsessed with meetings!

What did you do?

ironically, we started having a meeting with our Head. This may sound made but it worked. We showed him the anonymous comments from members outlining the number of meetings. We were unsuccessful initially and we had a plan of informal action ( walking out en masse during lunch ) and follow by indicative ballot. However the Deputy Head was much easier to convince and we did not need to do any of it. Sometimes you have to find the right person to talk to to enact change.

Did you face any set backs?

Our Head was very stubborn . It also took a long time to feed back to members and organise a strategy to escalate.

How did you solve the problems?

In the end fewer days were disaggregated.  And the calendar ended up having one meeting of one hour a week for teachers without TLR and although it seems like a small win, it has made a huge difference to the first half term. We also got rid of wet breaks so staff didn’t have to do extra supervision on rainy days.

Do you have any advice for reps, members or teaching staff?

 Try and focus on one issue at a time.  Anticipate response from SLT and  bring evidence – Be prepared to escalate-Know key people to talk to and convince-Don’t give up