TEACHERS at an opted-out academy in Leeds have launched strike action after employers refused to implement a national agreement on pay and conditions.

Oulton Academy is one of hundreds of schools which opted out of local authority control and is run by a taxpayer-funded trust under the Tories’ academy programme.

The academy has refused to implement an agreement negotiated by teachers’ unions that set out deals on pay and working conditions in state schools on a national level.

National Education Union (NEU) members struck on Friday and will strike again on Monday and Tuesday July 8 and 9.

Leeds NEU assistant secretary Terry Bambrook said multiple efforts had been made to negotiate a settlement, saying Oulton staff were “only asking to have the same rights and terms and conditions into the future as other teachers and support staff locally and nationally.”

NEU general secretary Mr Kebede, who joined the picket line on Friday, said: “Strike action is the last thing any teacher or support staff wants to engage in.

“It is vitally important terms and conditions are maintained as our members’ working conditions are our children’s learning conditions. They deserve to be valued.”