Union is PAYING teach to strike: Parents' outrage as NUT bankrolls walkouts over official who hasn't taught for 14 years

Teachers are being paid to strike in defence of a militant union official bringing chaos to the education of 3,000 pupils.

The National Union of Teachers is reimbursing members who join a walkout today in support of Julie Davies.

The militant rep was suspended after headteachers accused her of ‘confrontation’, ‘obfuscation’ and encouraging ‘a climate of mistrust’.

The National Union of Teachers is reimbursing members who join a walkout in support of Julie Davies (above)

Mrs Davies has organised two strikes in protest of her suspension. Pictured: An NUT march earlier this year

Parents reacted with fury to the idea of bribes for strikes and have suggested they will bill the NUT for their childcare costs.

But union leaders remain defiant, threatening longer walkouts and extending the action to more schools. This is despite only 50 to 60 per cent of teachers at the two comprehensives involved having voted for strike action.

Mrs Davies, 58, is a full-time NUT rep who has not taught since 2000.

Schools across Haringey in north London pool their funds to pay her £45,900 salary but many heads do not want to continue the deal, with insiders saying she has been obstructive for years.

Mrs Davies is leading strikes in protest, initially targeting Fortismere and Highgate Wood – the two schools she claims signed the letter denouncing her.

Chris Reed, whose son attends Highgate Wood, said: ‘If the NUT are setting aside money to pay the teachers to go on strike, then what about paying the parents to sort out the childcare at the same time? People are having to take time off work.’

He is spearheading a petition calling on NUT general secretary Christine Blower to end the strikes. She is away on a business trip to Sweden.

It states: ‘We believe our children are being victimised by one NUT member while she battles her disciplinary hearing and suspension. This is damaging their education, our patience, and it is significantly damaging the reputation of the NUT as a whole.

Mrs Davies, 58, is a full-time NUT rep who has not taught since 2000 but who still earns a salary of over £45,000

On Twitter, the suspended Mrs Davies describes herself as a 'teacher, union rep, psychokiller, obviously'

‘Christine Blower, you can show some leadership and do what you can to end this strike immediately, or you can stand idly by while 3,000 pupils suffer each day of strike action, and their parents get increasingly bitter with the NUT as a result of one solitary member – a member who according to media reports hasn’t done any teaching in 14 years.’

The petition has already attracted more than 50 signatures, including that of Matthew Moore, who said: ‘I have two sons at Fortismere and missing their education because professional teachers cannot agree is pathetic and such a bad example to young people on how the world should work.’

Another parent, Adi Forman, said: ‘Singling out two schools in a whole borough in order to pressure the council is unethical and hard to sympathise with. My child does not deserve this and neither do the schools.’

Schools have a legal obligation to give union officials ‘facility time’ – paid leave of absence to undertake their union duties. But the Department for Education insists that ‘taxpayers’ money should not be funding trade union reps who spend little or no time actually teaching’.

We believe our children are being victimised

 Parent Chris Reed

It has published guidance which aims to ensure reps continue to teach alongside carrying out their union duties.

Talks between the NUT and local heads are likely to begin next week. Bob Stapley, the union’s regional secretary for London, said: ‘We are considering strike action for next week. We would be delighted if we were able to resolve the dispute and not have to call that action but there is every possibility of action there and in further schools.

‘We are escalating slowly because we want to minimise disruption but they need not doubt our resolve.

‘We can’t lose – we cannot contemplate a situation in which an employer vetoes our representative. We would cease to be a free and independent union.

‘The fact that teachers are reimbursed for loss of pay does not lessen the difficulty for teachers of going on strike.

‘Our members want to work with these youngsters and get the best possible results for them but at least in some of these local disputes, the union’s resources are deployed in order to offset the loss that people would otherwise suffer.’ 

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Parents have started a petition calling on NUT general secretary Christine Blower (above) to end the strikes

In a letter to parents, Highgate Wood’s headmaster Patrick Cozier said the school was unwilling to continue funding Mrs Davies’s post ‘until concerns had been addressed about aspects of the Haringey NUT’s behaviour’.

He described today’s two-day walkout as very disappointing, adding: ‘We are clear that the NUT (and any other trade union) can elect who they wish to represent their members.’

Around 150 members are thought to have taken part in the first walk-out backing Mrs Davies last week.

The English teacher was suspended in July over the concerns expressed by heads as well as over other allegations, including that she sent a tweet spreading news about a mayor ‘abusing’ her position. Haringey Council is investigating.

Its leader Claire Kober said: ‘Strike action in two Haringey schools has already disrupted the education of our young people, and I’m very concerned about the negative impact that further industrial action will have on students.

‘Haringey has a proud history of championing trade unions and we want all teachers in the borough to continue to have access to appropriate union representation.

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Mrs Davies was released from teaching English at Northumberland Park community school in North London (pictured) to carry out ‘staff representation’ full time, while still picking up her annual pay of more than £45,000

‘However, the fact is that all council employees are bound by our code of conduct. It is our responsibility to fully investigate any alleged breaches of this code, and it’s important that this process is allowed to run its course.’ 

Teachers at another Haringey school, Park View, are being balloted over strikes and a ballot is being considered at Hornsey School for Girls.

The letter from local secondary heads said: ‘Secondary school headteachers have found, and continue to find, that Ms Davies’ preferred approach and working style is one of confrontation and obfuscation.

‘Our combined experience is that she seeks to encourage a climate of mistrust, often involving the airing of her personal critiques of individual head teachers, rather than seeking to develop effective communication channels or relationships based on trust and openness.’

 

I’m just an ordinary teacher, says the activist who’s picked up £1/2m without who hasn’t taught a class for 14 years

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Full-time activist Julie Davies, 58, has claimed she would be ready to step in front of a class ‘tomorrow’ despite not teaching a lesson for 14 years

Julie Davies claims she would be ready to step in front of a class ‘tomorrow’ – despite not teaching a lesson for 14 years even though she is drawing a full teacher’s salary.

The 58-year-old activist’s critics are dubious that she would be up to the job, given all the changes in education policy and practice since she last taught.

They believe she would require a lengthy training course to bring her up to speed – paid for by the taxpayer of course.

However, Mrs Davies claims to be as much of a teacher as she was when she last did the job we pay her for – at the dawn of the century.

‘I’m an ordinary teacher,’ she declared a few years ago, when questions began to be asked of her role.

‘Most of my time’s spent sitting next to teachers who are being sacked or disciplined.’

She was hired to teach English at Northumberland Park Community School, but found she was spending increasing amounts of time on her union duties. 

To her delight – and many taxpayers’ dismay – in 2000 she was released from teaching entirely, so she could become a full-time activist.

Mrs Davies says she is barred by her contract from talking to the Press, so will not say whether she enjoys the same long holidays as normal teachers.

She was recently known to be spending four days a week ‘supporting National Union of Teachers members’, and a fifth as a ‘convenor’, co-ordinating between various teaching unions in the north London borough of Haringey. 

It is understood that her annual pay has risen from £35,000 to more than £50,000 over that time – meaning the council has paid her well over half a million pounds to not teach a single lesson.

She had been flying under the radar until recently, when Communities Secretary Eric Pickles called for an end to the State’s bankrolling of union officials,.

Mrs Davies, who lives with husband David, 65, and their two sons in a £500,000 house in north London, is mystified by her opponents, insisting that she plays a valuable role in resolving disputes in schools.

Before the launch of strikes she helped organise, she has said: ‘I don’t spend my time organising strikes. I spend my time helping people who need support and advice.

‘Perhaps they have been assaulted by a pupil or parent, or suspended following an allegation. They might be facing redundancy or underperformance issues or being disciplined ... teachers are entitled to representation. 

'Every local education authority gives union reps time to do their work. It’s a far more cost-effective way of representing NUT members ... I work really hard.’

The staunch Left-winger has opposed a raft of government reforms, such as turning schools into academies.

She dislikes her own finances, background or property holdings being discussed – but wrote pompously to the Guardian several years ago that London schools’ problems are ‘beyond the understanding of a millionaire Cabinet or privately educated Education Secretary’.

She also intervened in 2003, suggesting that children of failed asylum seekers should not be deported because it upsets their classmates.

‘Our schools are penalised by serving a transient community. It is distressing and further destabilising for our young people to lose their friends through deportation,’ she claimed.