London school uses law change to replace striking staff with agency workers
A primary school whose top management were paid £1.49m last year has become among the first to use strike-busting legislation allowing them to hire agency workers to replace striking staff.
Temps have been brought in to break a strike by 10 support staff at Drapers’ Pyrgo primary in Romford, east London, who are protesting against cuts to their wages and working hours.
It is believed to be the first use in schools of a new law enacted in the final days of Boris Johnson’s administration that allows agency workers to be brought in to replace striking workers
The Trades Union Congress, Labour and rebel Conservative MPs had warned that the legislation, approved in July, would undermine workers’ rights. A Labour MP had described it as being akin to a “scabs charter” while the TUC accused Johnson of taking a step that “even Margaret Thatcher did not go near”.
Drapers’ Pyrgo is one of five academies within the Drapers multi-academy trust where the total benefits’ packet for its trustees and 12 members of senior management was £1,488,140 in 2020-2021, up from £1,213,373 the previous year.
One agency, Pertemps, had agreed to provide supply staff to the school but claimed it subsequently refused on being informed of the reason by the National Education Union (NEU).
The company’s managing director, Andrew Anastasiou, suggested in a letter to the NEU on 21 September that it had been misled, a claim that has been strenuously denied by Drapers multi-academy trust.
“We were completely unaware of the strike action,” Anastasiou wrote. “Drapers’ Prygo is not a client school of ours. They called us for the first time a couple of weeks ago for help in finding 3 TAs [teaching assistants] for two days, which we were informed was for sickness cover.
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