Redcar teachers to strike over longer school hours
NEU said teachers would strike on 3 June, 10-11 June and 17-19 June.It follows OGAT's decision extend the school by 30 minutes, it said. Ms Farhat said the changes were "deeply unpopular" and the trust's teachers already had a "huge workload" which was affecting staff retention. "We believe that by pushing ahead with these changes and ignoring their staff, OGAT will make matters even worse," she said.She advised the trust to "listen to their staff" and negotiate with the union for the "sake of staff and pupils".
'Workload neutral'
OGAT said it was increasing the length of the school day because it currently did not meet government's 32.5 hour-a-week minimum expectation.It said its school day currently ended at 14:30 BST. "The small change we have proposed will mean students can learn more and achieve even stronger outcomes," a spokesperson said. They said they had also made a commitment to meet regularly with trade unions to "identify any unnecessary workload" so that the new school week was "workload neutral" for teachers. It said it was particularly disappointed that the union had chosen days when students were due to take "important exams".
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