Inspections of children's care homes, boarding schools and nurseries in England will be hit by a strike by Ofsted officials this week, it is claimed.
Up to 1,000 members of Unison and the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) will walk out on Friday in protest at the imposition of a below-inflation wage rise.
Helga Pile, national officer at Unison, said the staff had no choice but to strik
e.
"Our Ofsted members are loyal public sector workers, not hard-liners prone to strike. However, they are disappointed and very angry at employers who are constantly demanding more work for less pay," she said.
Neil March, of the PCS, said: "If Ofsted wants to avoid this industrial action it has to demonstrate a commitment to an improved offer with decent cost of living increases to all staff, instead of leaving significant numbers with no pay increase for two years and others with awards that are below even the Government's inflation figure.
"We have told Ofsted what we believe it needs to do to secure additional funds from the Treasury and we have pointed out where it can divert existing money from other areas into consolidated pay."
The unions said the imposed settlement would lead to some staff having their pay frozen. The only guaranteed increases were "way below" inflation.
Ofsted school inspectors are not involved in the dispute.
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