Support staff victorious in national pay battle

Unions representing school support staff are celebrating after education secretary Alan Johnson gave the green light for creating a national pay structure under a new negotiating body. The long-awaited report by the Support Staff Working Group (SSWG) proposes that all non-teaching school staff, including teaching assistants and nursery nurses, be taken out of the National Joint Council negotiations between local authorities and unions, which determine pay and conditions for all other council employees. The unions hope it will end the wide disparities in pay for school staff, which have resulted from the process of harmonising conditions under the single status...