Legal victory guarantees supply teachers' pay rates

A County Court has ruled that supply teachers must be paid at least the minimum rate set out in government guidelines.

The ruling came in a case brought by the NASUWT schoolteachers' union on behalf of Cheshire member Wendy Morris, whose hourly rates of pay were well below those set out in the government's National pay and conditions book.

This states that supply teachers' daily pay should equate to 1/195th of a teacher's annual salary - equivalent to 6.48 hours per day. But at the three schools where Morris worked, she received as little as five hours' pay per day - the length of time that she spent teaching, excluding duties such as registration and break supervision.

Finding in Morris's favour, the court awarded her £730 in compensation - the difference between the salary she received for 56 days' work and the 1/195th of the pro rata annual salary she was due.

The NASUWT says that the legal victory has national ramifications, with more than 100 supply teachers potentially underpaid in Cheshire alone. The union has urged all of them to check their salaries and not to accept work for less than 1/195th of the standard annual salary.

"Supply teachers have an important role to play in schools but often face difficulties in securing parity of treatment with school-based teachers on pay, working conditions and access to professional development," said NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates. She added that the legal victory would "block another avenue of unfair treatment".

Cheshire local education authority has told the county's headteachers that it will not support schools in any litigation where teachers are asked to work for a day but are paid for less than 6.48 hours' work.