Dinner ladies may strike over cut in working hours

Cooks who have been campaigning for equal pay with male manual workers at Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council said their hours are being reduced.

A rallying call has been sent to Unison members working in the kitchens of more than 50 schools, to attend a meeting in Redcar this evening.

Dinner ladies are expected to be told the result of a strike ballot, which could result in a one-day walk-out this week.

Councillor Valerie Halton, the council's lead member for children's services, has said the School Catering Service will need to be subsidised by up to £700,000 this year and that the money, which comes from school budgets, represents a choice between staff in the classroom or staff in the dining room. She said the hours being worked in school kitchens were based on "exceptionally generous and now outdated" guidelines.

"If we can reduce these hours and compensate staff accordingly, schools will have more money to spend on high- quality food ingredients as well as staff in the classroom," she said recently.

Coun Halton declined yesterday to add to her comments before learning the outcome of the ballot for fear of "inflaming the situation".

A Unison shop steward said last night: "What is happening is they have reduced the hours, taken seven-and-a-half hours off the cooks, and we have until May 11 to accept a one-off council offer to pay us half the loss of earnings for a year.

"But if cooks agree to that 50 per cent, they are accepting the change in terms and conditions."

She said cooks were now expected to prepare a meal for a school in only three hours, after starting work at 9am, which left no time for cleaning or adequate supervision.

The shop steward said: "What is going to happen is standards are going to fall. Health and safety will be at risk and accidents are going to happen."

School dinner ladies were among 140 female council workers who went to a tribunal last year in a fight for equal pay with men.