Teachers at 32 sixth form colleges will begin three days of strike action later this month after being snubbed from the government’s pay award for school teachers.
Non-academised sixth-form college members of the National Education Union will walk out on November 28, December 3 and December 4.
NEU announced earlier this week it achieved a 97 per cent vote in favour for strike action in 32 of the 39 sixth form colleges balloted. But it held off announcing strike dates while it sought “urgent clarification” from the government on whether the £300 million announced at the budget could be spent on staff pay.
A spokesperson said today that “no such clarification has been received” so strikes will follow.
The row stems from the announcement in the summer that a 5.5 per cent pay rise for 2024/25 will be funded for schools and academised sixth form colleges. Non-academised sixth form colleges, alongside further education colleges, were excluded from the deal.
Daniel Kebede, NEU general secretary, said: “Our dispute has highlighted the lack of care shown to the further education sector as a whole and the urgent need to bring college staff pay up to at least the same level as in schools.
“We remain concerned by the disregard shown by the DfE to the longstanding, effective collective bargaining arrangements in sixth form colleges and would expect that this situation would not arise in the future.”
Smith supports pay equality
Skills minister Jacqui Smith told the Association of Colleges annual conference yesterday she acknowledged widespread disappointment that colleges were not included in the government’s decision to award the school teacher pay rise.
“We have a different situation in FE in terms of the government’s role in pay, and that was the reason why we weren’t at that point able to fund the same pay increase,” she said.
“I know it will have felt like a lack of recognition of the FE workforce, but genuinely we understand the crucial role that the FE workforce plays … and I think we need to think about the architecture around FE teacher pay for the future.”
Asked directly if she would like to see FE and school teacher pay match, Smith replied: “Yes, yes I would.”
Kebede welcomed Smith’s comments and said his union “remained hopeful the government will guarantee that colleges may utilise additional funding now allocated to them for pay”.
The 32 sixth form colleges that voted in favour of strike:
Aquinas College (Stockport)
Barton Peveril Sixth Form College (Eastleigh)
Bolton Sixth Form College
Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College
Cardinal Newman College (Preston)
Christ The King Sixth Form College (Lewisham)
Christ The King Sixth Form College Aquinas
Capital City College – Angel (Islington)
Greenhead College (Huddersfield)
Henley College
Hills Road Sixth Form College (Cambridge)
Holy Cross College (Bury)
Itchen College (Southampton)
Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College (Birmingham)
Leyton Sixth Form College
Loreto College (Manchester)
Luton Sixth Form College
Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College (Leeds)
Peter Symonds College (Winchester)
Richard Collyer, The College of (Horsham)
Scarborough Sixth Form College
Shrewsbury Colleges Group
Sir George Monoux College (Walthamstow)
St Brendan’s Sixth Form College (Bristol)
St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College (Kensington)
St Francis Xavier Sixth Form College (Clapham)
St John Rigby RC Sixth Form College (Wigan)
Varndean College (Brighton)
Wilberforce College (Hull)
Winstanley College (Wigan)
WQE and Regent College Group (Leicester)
Wyke Sixth Form College
Xaverian College (Manchester)
The FE sector is more obstacle course than level playing field.
Once you’ve sorted out sixth form pay disparity with schools, then you have College pay with schools & sixth forms to tackle.
Then Independent Training Providers, what to do with profit versus non profit?
Thorny, but real problems that won’t go away and are fundamentally crucial to a learners experience of the further education and skills system.