wages

From the archive: Remember this?

Brighton and Hove special-needs teaching assistant Simon Parker, 30, spent part of the hour before Friday's strike and protest fighting with his partner about money. He will strike on the planned day of action in January, as well, if Brighton and Hove council doesn't accept assistants' concerns about a proposed new pay package.

Like the hundreds of assistants who took strike action on Friday, Simon Parker was furious at council plans to reduce the number of paid weeks in assistants' contracts by five. He also thought that assistants were desperately in need of better wages generally. 'I don't necessarily think we should get the same as teachers, but we need to get something that we can live on. You do spend a lot of time teaching, as well as the assistant's work. If I could have a pay increase, I could live with that.'