Durrant Pate/Contributor

The Harris Federation of schools in England has promised to provide improved conditions for Jamaican and other foreign teachers in its employment after they threatened to strike.

Britain’s National Education Union is claiming a “resounding improvement” in the workload and conditions for the foreign teachers at Harris Federation of schools, a leading United Kingdom (U.K.) academy chain. Union leaders described the school chain’s record on overseas-trained teachers, as ‘Harris Federation’s Windrush’.”

The NEU this week held a strike ballot of its 700 members at the schools, citing “excessive and unhealthy levels of workload” but after talks at the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, the NEU members voted to suspend the strike ballot, according to the U.K. Guardian.

The Harris Federation of schools confirmed to The Guardian that it will improve conditions for qualified teachers from Jamaica and others trained overseas, as part of a deal that eases the route for overseas-trained teachers to gain similar qualifications in England.

Details of the deal

The deal includes specified amounts of planning, preparation and assessment time for the teachers, who will also be able to choose if they wish to pursue qualified teacher status (QTS) in England, a key factor in the dispute. Previously, staff who wanted to seek QTS needed agreement from their school’s leaders.

NEU’s General Secretary, Daniel Kebede explains, “all teachers and support staff at the 18 Harris academies who stood up for their rights should feel proud of the stance they were prepared to take for fair pay, conditions and the unjust treatment of overseas-trained teacher colleagues….Addressing the exploitation of overseas-trained teachers by Harris Federation is a victory. This was Harris Federation’s Windrush. This is a record they should be ashamed of, and it is right that it is finally being addressed.”

The Guardian reported that a spokesperson for Harris disputed the NEU’s claims over pay, saying the federation had already raised the teachers’ pay to national levels since September, pre-dating the union’s action.“ 

The NEU’s leadership have tried and failed to create division between colleagues in our academies, despite ploughing time and resources into their campaign,” the spokesperson said adding, “it is both ridiculous and disappointing that Daniel Kebede is still trying to create conflict by inappropriately invoking the Windrush scandal without any factual basis for such a claim. It belittles what happened to the Windrush victims.”

Harris and other multi-academy trusts and schools in England have frequently recruited teachers from overseas in an effort to fill vacancies, with Jamaica a popular target because of the quality of the country’s teacher training.

One of the overseas-trained teachers involved in the campaign, speaking anonymously, said the result made her feel more appreciated as part of England’s education community.