{"id":18460,"date":"2024-11-23T07:53:42","date_gmt":"2024-11-23T07:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=18460"},"modified":"2024-11-23T07:53:42","modified_gmt":"2024-11-23T07:53:42","slug":"school-kitchen-staff-pay-unacceptable-principal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=18460","title":{"rendered":"School kitchen staff pay unacceptable – principal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Some primary schools have been facing a shortage of school kitchen staff<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Some school kitchen staff are on a “frankly unacceptable” salary despite a recent pay deal.<\/p>\n

That is according to the head of a Lisburn primary school, writing in a letter to the Education Authority (EA).<\/p>\n

Andrew Burns, from Riverdale Primary, told the EA that his kitchen supervisor had a “pay downgrade”.<\/p>\n

The EA, which employs the staff in school kitchens and canteens, said that “transformation work” agreed with trade unions was aimed at resolving the issue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Pay scales for school support workers like bus drivers, classroom assistants and canteen staff were recently changed after a review<\/a> into pay and job grading.<\/p>\n

But as part of that review school kitchen supervisors – known as unit catering supervisors – are on the same pay grade as cooks.<\/p>\n

The supervisors have a range of extra duties that cooks are not expected to undertake, including organising menus and food orders, and managing staff.<\/p>\n

Some primary schools in County Down have been without hot dinners recently<\/a> due to a shortage of school kitchen staff.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"AndrewAndrew Burns<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Andrew Burns, head of Riverdale Primary in Lisburn, wrote a letter to the Education Authority in support of kitchen staff<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Mr Burns told BBC News NI that Riverdale’s canteen supervisor not only made “sure the kids are getting a healthy and nutritious meal but also made it an interesting and fun place to go”.<\/p>\n

“It just seems to be over the years, she’s in earlier than she should be, she’s working longer than she should be,” he said.<\/p>\n

“When they’re going above and beyond to then basically what seems like a downgrade in pay, the worry is that you’re going to have people either burnt out or people deciding they’re not going to stay on.”<\/p>\n

Mr Burns added while it was good that pay agreements had been reached for all non-teaching staff he was concerned the “extra responsibilities” of canteen or unit supervisors had not been rewarded.<\/p>\n

In his letter to the EA, he asked that “this decision be reviewed with urgency”.<\/p>\n

“I feel that their jobs are undervalued and that they should be recognised for the hard work that they do,” he wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘We’re not asking for a lot’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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One unit supervisor told BBC News NI the new pay review made her feel “very much underappreciated”.<\/p>\n

She said while she did not want to diminish the work of cooks, unit supervisors have more responsibilities in the kitchen.<\/p>\n

“We feel there was no consultation with us regarding the changes,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We got to vote but there was no response from unions on our feelings.”<\/p>\n

Another unit supervisor said she had seen “many changes” in her job over the years.<\/p>\n

“Added paper work, a lot of it with very little clear training, staff shortages, not being able to depend on orders arriving, maintenance not being carried out, the list goes on,” she explained.<\/p>\n

“We put our all into the job and continue to feed the children.<\/p>\n

“We’re not asking for a lot, only that we are fairly paid and recognised for what we do.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

One school kitchen supervisor told BBC News NI the pay review left them feeling underappreciated<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A spokesperson for the EA said the pay and grading review “significantly reformed the EA pay structures, resulting in an uplift in pay for our support staff”.<\/p>\n

“This has been widely welcomed by our staff and will go a long way to tackling the recruitment and retention issues we are facing across many of our services.”<\/p>\n

However, the EA said some pay scales had been merged.<\/p>\n

“It was recognised as part of the pay and grading discussions with trade unions that this would have an impact on some staffing structures within our catering service,” the spokesperson continued.<\/p>\n

“It was therefore agreed with trade unions, as part of the pay and grading negotiations that service transformation work would be undertaken in parallel to the pay scales being amended.<\/p>\n

“This would resolve this issue.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: <\/em> www.bbc.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getty Images Some primary schools have been facing a shortage of school kitchen staff Some school kitchen staff are on a “frankly unacceptable” salary despite a recent pay deal. That is according to the head of a Lisburn primary school, writing in a letter to the Education Authority (EA). Andrew Burns, from Riverdale Primary, told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}