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NEWS


PLANS TO PUBLISH TEACHERS’ SICKNESS RECORDS – challenged

The NASUWT is fighting plans to publish, on a school-by-school basis, details of teachers’ pay and qualifications, whether they work full or part time, and their sickness absence records.

Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove announced last month that, as part of a package of measures designed to make schools more accountable to parents and the public, more details about staff costs and performance would be made available publicly.

The NASUWT believes this is part of a wider drive by the Coalition Government to denigrate public services and to deflect public hostility from its austerity measures onto public servants.

Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said: “These proposals demonstrate the deep-rooted contempt this Coalition Government has for teachers and other public service workers.

“The negative attitudes that clearly underpin these proposals will leave a nasty taste in the mouth of a hard-working and dedicated profession.”

Regarding the plans to publish sickness absence data, she added: “To focus on sickness absence in this way gives the green light to employers to harass and pressurise sick teachers back into work or force them out of the profession. Such behaviour is already a problem.”

The Coalition Government also plans to introduce new ‘readiness to progress’ measures at the ages of five and 11 to ensure children have the required skills to move on to the next stage of schooling.

This follows the announcement by Mr Gove of a review of Key Stage 2 SATs, which will report back in June 2011.

The Coalition Government has stated that the measures will support parents in choosing a school for their child and ensure schools are held accountable to the public.

The NASUWT argues that schools are already constrained by an overbearing accountability regime and that forcing them to publish data on teachers’ pay and performance will not only add to the bureaucratic burden on schools, but will also provide little genuine insight into school standards for parents. It will simply lead to more pressure on individual teachers and erroneous conclusions being drawn.


Health and safety ‘under assault’

Workplace health and safety is under serious threat from the Coalition Government just as a new study reveals that the recession is having a major impact on workers’ wellbeing.

The British Academy’s Stress at Work report found that there has been a marked increase in work ‘stressors’ such as increased workload, workplace bullying and job insecurity since the start of the UK’s financial crisis.

The research reveals an increase of 4-6% in work ‘stressors’ from spring 2009 to spring 2010, a marked rise in the previous 0.5-1.0% yearly increase seen in the UK since 1992.

The public sector has particularly felt the strain of the recession, the study found, with over a quarter of employees reporting an increase in their working hours, a rise of 7% since the recession, compared to a 2% rise in the private sector.

Job insecurity has also increased considerably in the public sector with almost a fifth of workers thinking they are ‘likely’ to lose their jobs, a rise of 11% since spring 2009.

A worrying finding is the rise in interpersonal conflict in the workplace, with 7% more public sector workers reporting bullying by managers in the past year, compared to 4% in the private sector.

Despite the increasing pressure on workers’ health and wellbeing, the Government has announced that the budget of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which enforces and regulates workplace health and safety, will be cut by 35%.

Combined with the 28% cut to local government funding being imposed by Westminster, workplace safety will be fundamentally undermined, the NASUWT believes.

The Stress at Work report can be found at www.britac.ac.uk. The NASUWT has created a wealth of resources and advice on tackling workplace stress, including a tool that allows you to assess your wellbeing and take steps to improve it.

"Over a quarter of public sector employees have reported an increase in their working hours, a rise of 7% since the recession, compared to a 2% rise in the private sector."

Check your wellbeing at work at www.nasuwt.org.uk/Welfare