Staff in the Unison union at exam board AQA are planning to strike again over pay on A-level results day, it was announced today.
Unison said that 180 workers, including those in customer services who would normally take calls from schools, parents and students about the results, will take action from Wednesday 17 to Sunday 21 August.
A-level results day falls on Thursday 18 August, and Unison said the industrial action could cause issues for teenagers trying to contact AQA on the day.
However, AQA has said this will not be the case.
Staff at AQA are also due to strike this Friday and into the weekend (12 to 15 August), after previously taking action last month.
The exam board has previously said that the 180 union members taking part in the action are a very small proportion of its overall staff of more than 1,200.
Unison said that wages at AQA increased last year by just 0.6 per cent, and that employees have been offered a rise of only 3 per cent this year amid the cost-of-living crisis.
Exam board strike planned for A-level results day
However, AQA has said that the offer also included a pro-rata payment of £500, as well as additional incremental increases for some staff, meaning the average pay increase would be 5.6 per cent.
Unison North West regional manager Vicky Knight said its members at AQA were disappointed that the company had not come back with “a realistic pay offer”. She said this left staff with no choice but to escalate their action.
“Disrupting A-level results day is not a decision anyone has taken lightly. However, AQA staff have been treated appallingly and only bold action will get their employer to the table. AQA must come up with a serious offer to prevent any further disruption,” she added.
An AQA spokesperson said: ”We’re dismayed that Unison has chosen to deliberately target students like this, but it won’t stop us from delivering the exam results our learners so richly deserve or supporting everyone afterwards.
“We have robust contingency plans in place to ensure that industrial action has no effect on results, and we successfully tested these plans during the previous industrial action in July.
“Our records show that only 4 per cent of our total workforce took part in that industrial action - and the remaining 96 per cent are absolutely committed to never letting our learners down.”
AQA has also said that earlier strike action by Unison did not disrupt meetings about the setting of grade boundaries.
Earlier today the exam board posted on Twitter to say that “all award meetings have finished and grade boundaries have now been set by senior examiners”.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We have been reassured the strike action announced by Unison among AQA staff will not have any impact on exam results.
“Only a tiny proportion of AQA’s staff are affected and it’s deeply disappointing that Unison choose to needlessly alarm students and parents with scaremongering about the impact on results.”
Students who receive results that they are not happy with can, rather than ringing the exam board, contact their school or college, the university or college they were hoping to go to or the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) on 0371 468 0468.
