Teachers at celebrated academy, led by �250,000 superhead, receiving only statutory sick pay of less than �100 a week

A very successful academy, with a super-head paid more than �250,000 a year, is among a “small minority” within the sector in only paying its teachers statutory sick pay of less than �100 a week, a union source has indicated, but the practice may spread.

Brampton Manor Academy, in Newham, East London, was revealed, in an employment tribunal judgment, to have put a newly qualified teacher with multiple sclerosis, Yasmin Omar, on statutory sick pay provision, receiving nothing for the first three days of absence from work and then £96.35 per week after that.

The move left Omar, who was just embarking on her teaching career as she was diagnosed with MS, homeless while still employed by the school.  

The finding came in a judgment which ruled that the school had subjected Omar, a science teacher who had joined Brampton Manor in September 2018, to 10 different instances of discrimination arising from her disability, as well as subjecting her to “harassment” and leaving her feeling “frightened” and “intimidated”.

One passage of the judgment report revealed how Omar had been rendered homeless while signed off sick from the school. Having struggled with relapses in her MS since starting at the school, the young teacher was signed off from work from February 27^th, 2019, before resigning the following September.

The judgment indicated the effect this had on Omar’s finances. It stated: “[Omar] experienced financial difficulties as from February 2019, she was only in receipt of statutory sick pay. She was evicted from her home on 30 April 2019 and was homeless until July 2020. [Omar] had to couch surf at various relatives’ homes.”

This development seems to underscore one possible effect, for staff, of schools deregulation, since academies do not have to follow the national teachers’ contract, which lays down rules on work conditions and remuneration.

Under the so-called “Burgundy Book,” which applies to all teachers in non-academy local authority maintained schools, sick pay rules provide far better protection than the UK’s less-than-generous statutory sick pay entitlement, which applies across all jobs.

Under the “Burgundy Book,” during the first year of a teacher’s service, they are entitled to full pay for 25 working days initially and then, after completing four calendar months’ service, half pay for 50 working days.

For a teacher on the starting salary of £25,714 in 2020-21, full pay would equate to £406.69 a week after tax and national insurance, according to this calculation.

In the second year of teaching, a teacher gets full pay for 50 working days and half pay for the next 50 days.

During the third year, the equation is full pay for 75 working days and then half pay for the next 75, while after that, staff receive full pay for 100 working days and half-pay for 100 after that.

This compares to the statutory sickness rate of £96.35 a week “for up to 28 weeks”.

The disparity is potentially huge for teachers. In Omar’s case, by my calculations she would have lost around £300 a week for the first 25 days of her absence, during March and April 2019, and then around £100 a week for the next 50 days, covering the period from early April to late June, because of Brampton Manor not following national pay and conditions.

For a more experienced teacher, the difference would clearly be higher. Someone who had been teaching for more than four years and was on £45,000 a year, say, would be looking at £659 per week on full pay for 100 working days, then half of that for another hundred working days.

From a position where this person would be guaranteed to take home £20,670 for this period of 200 working days, statutory would leave them with a guarantee of only 28 weeks at £96.35, or £2,700 in total.

I asked Michael Gavan, the National Education Union’s Regional Officer for East London, if Brampton Manor’s statutory sick pay policy applied to all its teachers, and, if so, whether it was unusual, in the academies sector, in taking advantage of deregulation this way.

For it is widely known that, although all academies have the freedom to depart from national pay and conditions contracts for teachers, many do follow national stipulations as observed by local authority schools.

Gavan, who is familiar with the school having worked with members working there, said: “Brampton Manor does not abide by the STPCD or the Burgundy Book. Staff who are sick only receive statutory sick pay – ie nothing for the first three days and only £96 a week thereafter.”

Asked if it was an outlier in the sector, Gavan said: “At the moment Brampton Manor is in a small minority but this could grow.”

As I reported earlier this week, the pay of Brampton Manor’s Executive Principal, Dayo Olukoshi, has doubled over the past eight years: from £125,073 in 2011-12 to £252,136 in 2019-20.

I have sought a response from this from Brampton Manor but, as with respect to Omar’s case as a whole, none has been forthcoming.

Are you aware of a school with only statutory sick pay? I would be interested to hear from you if so.