the MAT<\/a> said this was because the two joined the trust having offered employees rates in line with those provided by Lambeth council. <\/p>\nThese are said to be 58 per cent above the \u00a317,600 guaranteed in the burgundy book.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A teacher at the top of the main pay range would receive \u00a327,800 over 12 months. Staff at the rest of the trust\u2019s schools, which are in neighbouring Southwark, would get about \u00a323,000.<\/p>\n
Kebede \u2013 whose union is demanding equal maternity pay across the trust \u2013 accused Charter of \u201ccomplete intransigence\u201d as it had not \u201coffered a single penny more\u201d.<\/p>\n
He pointed to the \u201ctens of thousands\u201d it spent on \u201cexternal consultants, marketing and branding, a growing central team and substantial pay rises for its leaders\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2018We simply don\u2019t have the wriggle room\u2019<\/p>\n
However, a Charter Schools spokesperson said the consultant and marketing fees were \u201cone-off\u201d payments that were \u201cfractional compared to what it would cost us to increase maternity pay just in the first year alone\u201d.<\/p>\n
It also was \u201cone of only a few academy trusts who already pay our staff more than the national agreement for maternity pay\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, when trying to protect jobs because of the pressure of falling rolls and increased costs, we simply don\u2019t have the wriggle room to nearly double that commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n
If government funding \u201cchanged\u201d, they said, the chain \u201cwould more than welcome the opportunity for all staff to be on that even higher maternity rate\u201d.<\/p>\n
It is just the latest example of school funding woes pitting leaders against unions, with disruption for pupils. Some of the schools will have to close \u2013 although not for vulnerable pupils \u2013 while others will part-close.<\/p>\n
Jess Balado, the chair of the National Headteachers\u2019 Associations Network, said: \u201cIt is inevitably going to be the case that as things become tighter there will be more conflict [with unions].<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not fair on school leaders\u2026 there is not adequate funding in schools to be able to do everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
More strikes feared<\/p>\n
One trust chief executive, who asked to remain anonymous, warned of more strikes this autumn \u201cdue to the shortfall in funding and increased costs\u201d, noting: \u201cThe chickens have come home to roost. Schools will have to make redundancies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in London, NEU members at Harris Academy Beckenham took part in two days of walkouts this week over \u201cunacceptable management\u201d and workload.<\/p>\n
The union also claimed Harris Federation, which runs the school, has \u201cintervened to stop staff exercising their trade union rights\u201d by stopping officers from accessing the school and \u201cfalsely\u201d claiming \u201cthe NEU is refusing to meet\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But a Harris spokesperson said it did not recognise the \u201cmalicious allegations being spread about our schools\u201d and accused the union of \u201cencouraging dissent amongst our staff\u201d.<\/p>\n
The chain has \u201cattempted to engage\u201d with the NEU \u201con a number of occasions, but they have repeatedly refused to meet with us\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have extended the invitation to meet again and are committed to resolving any issues they have as soon as possible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More from this theme Recent articles A London trust that already offers maternity pay 30 per cent above…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[98267,748,393,4884,257,12,7101,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-255727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-academies","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-strikes","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114833707781495138","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Daniel](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Daniel-Kebede-new2-feat.jpg\" "\\"DanielKebedenew2feat")
Daniel Kebede<\/p>\n