Nursery World - Nursery and school staff win legal payout of £4m from council

Thousands of nursery and school staff employed by the Royal Borough of Greenwich have been awarded a share of £4 million from the council following a five-year legal battle over holiday pay.

The money will be shared between the 5,000 affected members of staff, who are expected to receive hundreds of pounds each.

Unison took the case to court on behalf of nursery staff, teaching assistants, administrators and other staff employed by the Royal Borough of Greenwich, after the council failed to calculate their annual leave properly. This meant that some staff had been losing up to five days’ pay a year.

The union brought employment tribunal claims on behalf of 476 term-time only staff, arguing under European law that they had been unlawfully treated less favourably than colleagues owing to their part-time status.

julie-steadman It followed the move by Greenwich council six years ago to change the contracts of staff working in its nurseries and schools from full year to term-time only. The error was first identified by cleaner Julie Stedman from Plumstead when her contract changed in June 2012. She realised her pay was around £35 short a month.

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