At the most recent CAT Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC), on 1 March 2016 the NASUWT had further discussions over the draft CAT absence policy. The NASUWT has stated it will accept no detriment to existing agreements which TUPEd across at point of conversion. The NASUWT has not yet signed agreement to the absence policy.

The Trade Union Recognition Agreement (TURA) and Trade Union Facility Time Agreement (TUFA) were reviewed and agreed at the JNC for review in three years’ time, 2019.

The CAT shared statistics on the monitoring of pay progression which revealed 15.7% of eligible staff did not receive their pay progression. If NASUWT members did not progress they should seek advice immediately and consider making an appeal against that decision. NB: Please see the contact details below.

Human resources has sent advice to all CAT heads teachers to ensure all NASUWT safety representatives are invited to all future audits and have a positive input into all aspects of health and safety in CAT academies.

The Cooperative Academies Trust has taken the Manchester Creative Arts and Media Academy (MCMA) under its wing.

Any newly converted CAT academies will retain existing policies which will transfer under TUPE. Existing CAT policies agreed at the CAT JNC cannot be imposed if there is any detriment to existing policies.

CAT has launched an MA in conjunction with MMU for CAT teachers which is proving both attractive and much sought after. The initial cohort which started in September 2015 has nine CAT members of staff registered on it.

The NASUWT Member Support Advice (MSA) Team

The NASUWT also has a service called the Member Support Advice (MSA) Team that provides professional advice on telephone number 03330 145550. They will provide you with telephone numbers and which of the above would be your appropriate point of contact as well as providing instant advice.