Teachers in two of Knowsley’s primary schools have taken strike action against the introduction of a punitive appraisal scheme.
This links incremental pay advance to successful appraisal and has been dubbed “the fast track to the sack”.
The appraisal scheme has been recommended to schools by Knowsley’s right-wing Labour council, and some have announced their intention to implement it.
On this basis teaching unions NUT and NASUWT members in Longview school and St Margaret and St Mary’s school took strike action on 13, 14, 20 and 21 March.
The strikers at Longview School were joined on the picket line by newly elected NUT national executive member Pete Glover, and Roger Bannister, secretary of the Unison branch in Knowsley, and member of the union’s national executive council. Both are Socialist Party members.
Knowsley council has proposed talks with Acas acting as conciliators (as opposed to arbitrators), and the unions are likely to take this up, while maintaining the pressure of further action should these talks not result in a settlement.
