Single status appeal: Victory for Vine workers

A Unison steward

We Learning Support Assistants have finally won our pay and grading appeal. We work at the Vine, a small Leeds City council service that provides specialist education and social care to young adults with learning difficulties.

We will now receive back pay from 2007 after months of campaigning in the workplace.

Because we are all part-time and term-time only, we are poorly paid. When our 'special needs allowance' was not factored into the re-evaluation of the job as a result of the Single Status Accord back in 2007, we were furious.

An appeal was lodged in December 2010 and was heard in January 2011. It has taken 19 months to finally get the outcome we deserve.

The cuts have impacted deeply within our service in recent years. Unable to take more staff on, those remaining have had to work harder to cope with maintaining the service.

For as long as I've been a steward the pay and grading issue has always been important. With determination, it has taken everything short of strike action to win.

Campaigning doesn't stop there. At our last workplace campaign meeting I encouraged my members to reject the latest council plans which will make it easier to make staff redundant.

My members will also be rejecting the governments' local government pension offer because none of us will be able to retire at 68 with all the moving and handling we do.

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