Angry dad criticises strike at Colne Valley High School

Jun 27 2009 By Barry Gibson

Three of the five workers have been at Colne Valley High for more than 20 years, and have a basic salary of between £30,000 and £35,000 a year.

The five teachers are paid between £2,000 and £8,600 extra for taking on management roles. However, a change in contracts will see them losing the additional payments after three years.

But the dad thinks it’s wrong to strike over this issue during a recession. He said: “No-one has lost their jobs and no-one had lost salary at the moment.

If there wasn’t a recession I wouldn’t be so annoyed about this.”

But Kirklees NUT secretary Howard Roberts said the controversial restructuring of the school had nothing to do with the economic crisis.

He said: “This is not caused by the financial situation in the country, the school is doing this of its own volition.”

Mr Roberts defended the striking teachers. He said: “Our members are not prepared to see colleagues have their careers damaged without supporting them.

“The members value the support of parents for their children’s education and going on strike was the last thing they wanted to do.”

There was no comment from the school yesterday.