From: Elly Starling, Head of Service, HR and OD

Following the national ballot of Unison members, a two 1 day strikes will take place on Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 July 2008. No further action is expected at this stage.

As a result, potentially any members of Unison who are covered by the Joint Negotiating Committee for Local Government Services - that is, "Green Book" or non-teaching staff maybe on strike. Although other groups are not directly affected at this stage, any employee who chooses not to cross a picket line will be deemed to be on strike. As far as any exemptions are concerned, Unison have not agreed to any exemptions to date. For the avoidance of doubt, Special Schools are not exempted on this occasion.

As far as pay is concerned, those on strike should not be paid for the day (s) they strike.

My advice is that you will need to plan to minimise the effect on services with your key objectives being;

	To maintain the Education of the children
	To meet statutory requirements
	To ensure health and safety of employees and the pupils (keys issues; safety, critical plant and equipment, appropriate supervision arrangements, tasks requiring multiply employees e.g. manual handling, ladders; access to safety equipment)
	To secure school property (keys, vehicles, premises, information systems, power, heat and light)
	To maintain internal and external communications

In order to satisfy the key objectives, you will no doubt wish to prioritise the services and functions that you currently operate, assessing the likely risk to each as a result of strike action. Within this general premise, no doubt you will wish to consider directing resources and effort to those who are high priority and high risk. Where access to property and equipment is in the control of staff who may strike, alternative arrangements will need to be made in advance.

My expectation is that not all those called upon to strike will in fact do so. It is quite reasonable for Head Teachers and managers to ask staff in advance whether they intend to strike although staff do not have to co-operate in giving this information. What I would advise is that you are not seen as pressurising staff not to strike.

Re-allocating of work will need to be considered and you will need to consider whether to ask staff who attend work to carry out work of absent colleagues. Where work is similar to that which the employee normally performs, staff can be asked to cover for absent employees. Where work is of a clearly different type, employees should only be asked to carry it out if it was genuinely critical and they still would have the right to refuse. If your staff feel pressurised to do different work, or if those on strike feel undermined by colleagues, work relations can be damaged for much longer than the length of this dispute. My advice is that Head Teachers/ Managers should treat the issue of work re-allocation sensitively and, if in any doubt, seek advice from your HR Consultant.

Staff who are talking strike action are not entitled to sickness payments. Staff who have reported sick prior to the strike should receive sickness payments as normal. Head Teachers/ Managers should take particular care to satisfy themselves that any sickness absence is genuine.

Peaceful picketing, by up to six people, at or near the place or work is lawful if conducted without causing obstruction. Generally, pickets should not be allowed on school premises but if there are safety concerns which can be resolved by pickets being allowed onto a site, that should be considered by Head Teachers. That said, pickets should not be entitled to use normal staff facilities.

Currently, it is not known which sites are likely to be picketed.

You may receive requests from members of staff for time off to attend Trade Union rallies, meetings etc during their work time. You will need to consider in accordance with the schools policy on authorised leave whether to grant time off but in any case it would be unpaid. Any unauthorised absence to attend such meetings should be treated as a disciplinary offence.

As stated above those on strike should not be paid for each day they strike. As a consequence, we will need the name of the person and how many hours they would have worked.

Notification to the Service Centre should be via a pro-forma. Click here to download the pro-forma or here for staff who cannot get in to "My School", the proforma must be completed with all details and authorised by the Head Teacher or Manager. Schools should email to schoolsadmin.eps.edu@norfolk.gov.uk or FAX to 01603 495841 by 23 July. The attached form must be sent from the Headteachers email account ie head@norfolk. Our aim is that deductions will be taken from August salary.

As with the recent NUT strike, Norfolk County Council has to inform regional government of numbers of staff electing to strike on each day, therefore I ask that you complete the following staffing returns:

July 16 - 10am Click here to provide relevant information
July 17 - 10am Click here to provide relevant information

If you have already had to made the difficult decision to close your school because of the number of staff who have already advised you that they will be striking, please complete the return now, showing only the number of striking staff who have prompted the closure.

The normal process of advising of schools closures should be followed to ensure that member of the public are fully aware of which schools are shut or partially shut.

Please ensure parents and pupils are given as much notice as possible to allow them to make alternative arrangements.

If you have any queries on either of the two days please contact Katie Partridge on 01603 638126 in the first instance. If you need advice prior to that contact your HR consultant.

I should like to thank you in anticipation of your co-operation in this matter.

If you have difficulties in accessing the Esinet system, or need a username and password for 'My School', please contact ICT Solutions on 0845 3033003.