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Staff at six Bristol schools to strike
Staff at a multi-academy trust whose chief executive earns an annual salary of more than £240,000 have voted overwhelmingly to go on strike in a dispute about backpay.
National Education Union (NEU) members at Merchants’ Academy, Venturers’ Academy, Montpelier High School, Bannerman Road Community Academy, Barton Hill Academy and Fairlawn Primary School have voted overwhelmingly to go on strike for three days.
Eighty-four per cent of balloted members voted with 99 per cent of these voting for strike action on June 30, July 9 and July 10.
The six schools in which NEU members will be taking strike action are part of E-ACT, a multi-academy trust with 37 academies across England which claims they “are all about celebrating our colleagues”.
Until 2024, their schools in Bristol were part of the Venturers Trust, sponsored by the Society of Merchant Venturers and the University of Bristol; with the NEU claiming that ex-Venturers Trust support staff are owed up to nine years of backpay.
Bristol24/7 understands that school support staff are awarded an annual cost-of-living pay uplift agreed in October or November and backdated to April when the award takes effect.
But former Venturers Trust schools now part of E-ACT only backpay this to September; meaning that support staff in former Venturers Trust schools have lost out on five months of the pay uplift year-on-year.
The NEU say this is a “historic mistake (that) needs to be corrected and ex-VT support staff given the money they are owed”.
A union spokesperson also said that any disruption “can be resolved by the employer making a meaningful offer to their staff to avert strikes”.
“The NEU will be available and willing to negotiate at any stage to ensure our members get what they are owed, and a strike can be avoided.
“This action is done in support of children in the schools. A happy school where staff are valued and paid properly makes for a happy place for a child to learn and thrive.
“All staff at ex-VT schools encourage kids to know right from wrong, and to have the knowledge and confidence to speak up and act when something needs challenging.”
E-ACT’s branding features strongly across their schools – image: E-ACT
Bristol NEU branch & district secretary, Tom Bolton, said “this is a very simple moral issue”.
Bolton said: “Support staff are some of the lowest paid members of staff in schools. They do a vital job. There are no schools without support staff.
“For whatever reason historically, support staff in these schools weren’t given the pay they were entitled to.
“Their employer was given the money to pay them by the government and for whatever reason the employer did not pay them properly.
“This is wrong and E-ACT need to use some of their significant financial reserves to give support staff what they are owed.
“NEU members of ours across nine Cathedral School Trust schools struck in 2025 and won the backpay they were owed.
“Now its time for our members in these schools to get the same. It is only equitable.
“If a support staff member in St Werburgh’s, Stoke Park or Cathedral Choir has now got the backpay they were owed, so should a support staff member in Fairlawn or Montpelier High or Venturers.
“All Bristol support staff deserve to be paid what they are owed.”
Bristol24/7 has asked E-ACT for comment.
Main photo: Walters & Cohen Architects
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