The NUT has welcomed draft regulations, published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, that would give agency workers equal treatment with permanent staff regarding pay and holidays after 12 weeks in the job. However, the Union has serious concerns that the proposals will not provide that equal treatment for agency teachers, and do not go far enough in giving agency teachers access to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.

The draft regulations state that if there is a break in an employee’s service for six weeks, this would break the continuity of the 12-week qualifying period for equal treatment rights. The NUT fears that teachers who move between schools will never accrue sufficient service to gain equal treatment rights. Even if a supply teacher remained working with a single hirer long term, the school summer holidays would inevitably result in a break of continuity.

To address these concerns, the union drafted an Early Day Motion, which was tabled in Parliament by Jon Cruddas MP on 8 December. The Motion outlines the potential problems and ‘urges the Government to strengthen the regulations before publication to ensure supply teachers can benefit from the equal treatment provisions’.

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