Biggest-ever strike against the practices of a multi-academy trust looms

The largest-ever strike against the working practices of a multi-academy trust is in prospect, as teachers are consulted on industrial action at England’s second-largest chain.

A formal ballot of more than 700 members of the National Education Union at 18 secondary schools and sixth forms run by the Harris Federation opened earlier this week.

The action is being triggered by what the union says are “excessive and unhealthy” levels of workload, which it says can see staff working up to five weeks a year beyond national limits; the details of Harris’s performance pay system; and Harris’s management of Caribbean and other overseas-trained teachers.

The NEU also says that the federation has been struggling on teacher retention, with a quarter of teachers in Harris schools having left at the end of the 2022-23 academic year - a far higher figure than in the local authority maintained sector.

Harris has been pushing back against these points behind the scenes, arguing that it does not require teachers to work beyond its own annual maximum hours, that it has increased its support for overseas staff, and that it pays more than the national teachers’ contract to staff.