The NASUWT, with the other school workforce trade unions, has negotiated a trade union recognition agreement with Eko Trust for consultation and collective bargaining purposes.
This provides the necessary structures for the NASUWT to meet with Eko at a national level and on a regular basis in the Eko Academies Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC).
The JNC is where the trade unions meet with Eko to negotiate on pay, conditions of service issues and on policies and procedures for teachers and other Eko staff.
Eko is a charitable multi-academy trust focusing on academies across England. A list of their academy schools can be found on their website.
Pay and conditions in Eko academies
The NASUWT seeks to ensure that members in academy schools have, at least, the equivalent pay award to teachers in other maintained schools.
Teachers working in an Eko academy should continue to receive the same pay increase and benefits as teachers in the maintained sector.
Protection of your pay and conditions under TUPE
Staff who transferred when the school became an academy transferred under TUPE and therefore benefit from the protections of TUPE.
One of those protections is that changes to the transferred contract of employment cannot be made. Regulation 4(4) TUPE sets that out - any purported variation to the contract will be void. Therefore, requiring staff who transferred under TUPE to sign new contracts is not permitted.
The protection from TUPE does not apply only to certain terms and conditions. TUPE applies to the whole contract. The employer cannot pick and choose which bits of the contract are protected by TUPE - it is all protected by TUPE and so there should not be any move to introduce new contracts.
Employees therefore have the legal right to transfer to the new employer on their existing terms and conditions of employment and with all their existing employment rights and liabilities intact. Effectively, the new employer steps into the shoes of the old employer and it is as though the employee’s contract of employment was always made with the new employer.