The grey cloud of industrial action is looming on the FE horizon across the UK just three months into 2021.

While teaching staff in Northern Ireland’s six further education colleges will take a day of strike action next week over pay and conditions, the University and College Union announced this week that a ballot was opening for strike action at prison education provider Novus.

Meanwhile, college lecturers in Scotland had already voted in favour of strike action - although last week’s planned action was cancelled after negotiations with employers progressed.

The issues are clearly very different though. UCU members’ concerns at Novus relate to health and safety concerns, and if members back the action, educators at 49 prisons and young offender institutions in England and Wales will walk out.

Teacher pay: Strike action looms in Scottish FE

Industrial action: Day of strike action in Northern Ireland

Colleges: Association of Colleges recommends 1 per cent pay rise - or £250

In Northern Ireland, the union declared a dispute with Diane Dodds, minister for the economy, because college leaders say they cannot pay staff more unless the Northern Ireland Assembly increases college funding.

The threat of strike action in colleges

Employers made a pay offer of 7 per cent over four years, which the UCU said amounted to an annual pay rise of 1.2 per cent over a nine-year period and a real-terms cut. It was also significantly below the pay offer made to school teachers.

Scotland’s college lecturers voted in favour of strike action last month over what they say are plans by some institutions to replace lecturer posts with lower-paid trainer or assessor positions. And while national strike action is, for now, cancelled, lecturers at Forth Valley College are, in fact, on strike because of the recruitment decisions their college leaders have taken.

A number of common themes are at the heart of these disputes. The first is a feeling among college staff that they are not valued - either by their employers or by government. How could they think they are valued if they think their employer is willingly putting their safety at risk? Or does not value their professional qualifications and experience, and is happy to replace them with “cheaper” staff?

Also at the core of this is an underlying funding issue. In Scotland, the looming strike action is the latest episode in a process that started with the reintroduction of national bargaining and the move to put all lecturers on to a pay scale that will see them move towards earning over £40,000 - significantly more than the average pay for lecturers elsewhere in the UK. That came at a time of huge financial pressure on the sector, and amidst wholesale reform - and many feared then, a number of years ago, that it would lead to colleges recruiting teaching staff into other, non-lecturer roles to save money.

And while nothing in FE is ever black and white - for instance, Scottish FE institutions have recently seen their government funding increase - there is no denying that the sector has been under significant financial strain, and the impact of Covid will have only exacerbated that.

In England, the Association of Colleges has repeatedly stressed the financial pressure on institutions, which it says has meant a pay increase of more than 1 per cent is unrealistic.

The UCU, meanwhile, argued in December that colleges had shown they could not be trusted to spend public funds in the way they were intended.

“The £224 million increase in base-rate funding was meant to give colleges the ability to prioritise staff pay. Only an independent investigation into where the missing millions have gone will give us the full transparency required. UCU members will now find it hard to believe that the AoC can be a trusted partner for joint campaigning,” general secretary Jo Grady said at the time.

Right now emotions in the sector feel very raw. Staff in colleges are tired and stressed. This week, we reported on the state of mental health at college leader level. And money is tight everywhere you turn.

Management will need to strike the right balance between balancing the books and creating an environment where staff feel valued (and, of course, safe). I’m afraid pay is the most obvious way in which staff assess their value to an institution. If leaders fail to achieve that, relationships will continue to deteriorate and the sector will descend into ever darker places over the coming month.

With the ongoing pandemic and thousands of learners needing further education more than ever, that is not something it can afford.