UN Anti-Racism Day
The NEU supports the UN’s global Anti-Racism Day with demonstrations in London, Glasgow and Cardiff on the 19 and 20 March. Visit standuptoracism.org.uk
Yasmin can finally close ‘painful chapter’ AFTER a legal battle spanning four school years, a disabled NEU member who took her former employer to tribunal for discriminating against her has finally settled her case. Yasmin Omar (right), a science teacher who has multiple sclerosis (MS), won her case against Brampton Manor Academy last May but received her undisclosed settlement last month. She told Educate: “I can finally begin to close that chapter. The case has been the most cathartic yet painful experience of my life. At present, I feel more hopeful than anything.” Harassed and discriminated against The tribunal found managers at the east London school repeatedly harassed and discriminated against Yasmin when she joined as a newly qualified teacher in 2018, a few months after being diagnosed with MS. On her first day, Yasmin’s manager “effectively refused” her request to leave an Inset day half an hour early to attend an urgent medical appointment. By February 2019, she had been forced to take time off sick, was put on statutory sick pay of £96.35 a week and left homeless. Yasmin, who was supported by the NEU’s legal team and has since become a rep, said: “Invisible illnesses make up the largest proportion of disability in the workforce,
NEU legal challenge to forced academisation THE NEU is submitting a joint union legal challenge against the Secretary of State for Education, Nadhim Zahawi, and the Department for Education, after all the Catholic Diocese of Hallam’s schools received “unlawful” letters informing them that they would be forced to join multiacademy trusts. Unless a school requires intervention, the Secretary of State can only issue an academy order on the application of the governing body of the school. The academisation of 47 schools across Yorkshire and the north Midlands is being imposed by the Diocese, despite 19 governing bodies saying they never agreed to the process.
Yasmin Omar
yet misconceptions are still widespread, and disability is associated with a wheelchair logo. “Most members of staff are not familiar with the Equality Act so reasonable adjustments are often viewed as a way of teachers getting out
PHOTO by Kois Miah
of tasks everyone else has to do. Training staff in the Equality Act is imperative to improving the morale of all education staff.” n Visit neu.org.uk/advice/reasonableadjustments-work
‘This exploitation must end’ FINDINGS from a nationwide survey revealing the widespread exploitation of support staff are “truly shocking” and must be addressed urgently. NEU joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said: “The systematic exploitation of the lowest paid members of the school community has to stop. Adding the pandemic to the list of excuses for such a situation is simply not good enough.” The NEU survey covered a range of areas including hours, breaks, duties, job descriptions, CPD and training. Twenty-eight per cent are working at least four hours of unpaid overtime a week, and 83 per cent are not paid during
their lunch break. The survey also found classroom support staff are being used as de facto teachers. Huge numbers of staff are regularly teaching whole classes, in what’s known as “grade drift”, in breach of existing agreements and in some cases the law. Forty-eight per cent of higher-level teaching assistants are teaching whole classes regularly, with 36 per cent actually timetabled by their school to teach whole classes permanently. Kevin said: “The NEU calls on local authorities, academy trusts and individual schools to put measures in place to deal with the issue once and for all.” n See feature page 29
educate Your magazine from the National Education Union
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