SCHOOL support staff trapped in poverty in Wales are demanding a dedicated Wales negotiating body to tackle low pay.
Unison Cymru launched a report from the Labour Research Department (LRD) that details how thousands of school support staff in Wales are being pushed into poverty despite working.
The union said the current system for setting pay is failing support staff.
The latest LRD report was commissioned by the union and shows staff are routinely employed on the wrong grade, regularly work above their contracted hours and are rarely paid for additional responsibilities.
School support staff forum chairwoman Sara Allen said: “No-one gets a job in a school to become rich, but what we do want is to help local children get the best start in life.
“It’s scandalous so many of us are trapped in in-work poverty. Fair pay is the least we deserve and we’ll be campaigning for a dedicated negotiating body that delivers it.”
The LRD report, Time to value school support staff: The case for a Wales School Support Staff Negotiating Body, finds that many are in single-income households, and a significant proportion are reliant on benefits.
The report highlights how the largely female workforce is essential to delivering national education priorities, yet remains undervalued and underpaid.
These conditions are driving staff away and creating a recruitment and retention crisis across Wales, Unison Cymru said.
The union said that a Wales school support staff negotiating body would address long-standing problems that cannot be fixed by the local government pay structure, which currently sets their wage rates.
Unison Cymru called for all political parties to make a commitment to establish a negotiating body in their Senedd election manifestos.
The union claimed the new body would end the postcode lottery in pay, ensure job descriptions reflect real responsibilities, tackle the injustice of term-time only contracts and provide proper routes for progression.
Unison Cymru’s Rosie Lewis said: “Schools in Wales couldn’t function without support staff, yet too many are struggling on wages that simply don’t reflect the work they do.
“They’re overstretched, underpaid and overwhelmingly women.
“For years, reports have repeatedly highlighted the same problems, but this new LRD study is definitive.
“Creating a dedicated body would finally give support staff the fair pay, recognition and progression they deserve.”
