Strike action could be looming in the sixth-form college sector as the NEU teaching union has opened a formal ballot.
NEU members in the sixth-form colleges sector are being balloted about taking discontinuous strike action during the autumn and spring terms in a dispute over pay.
The union is asking for what it calls “a significant improvement in the pay and working conditions of NEU members, requiring not merely a cessation of the real-terms cuts in funding but their reversal”.
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Pay dispute at colleges
For September 2019, staff want to see a substantial and above-inflation increase to all teacher pay points and allowances in 2019-20, which they say must also make good the loss of 0.5 per cent in comparison with school teachers’ pay suffered from September 2018.
The ballot, which will close next month, is being conducted on a college by college basis and will require a majority and 50 per cent turnout in each college for action by members in that college.
The NEU said sixth-form colleges suffered a 22 per cent reduction in real-terms funding between 2010-11 and 2016-17 - deeper cuts than any other group of education institutions. During that period, there had been a 15 per cent reduction in teaching staff numbers despite a 6 per cent increase in the number of students, it added.
“Teachers and support staff in sixth-form colleges have suffered a substantial real-terms cut in the value of their pay since 2010,” said the union. “Their pay has also fallen back compared to other workers’. Now the parity for sixth-form college teachers with schools has been lost as well.
“The [education secretary’s] decision to provide the teachers’ pay grant only to those colleges with academy status was one of the main reasons why the NEU and SFCA [Sixth Form Colleges Assocation] could not reach a 2018 pay agreement for teachers maintaining pay parity with schools.”
Ongoing negotiations
In July, it was announced the Department for Education will award teachers a 2.75 per cent pay rise in September - but this does not extend to staff in sixth-form colleges.
Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said: “Pay negotiations for 2019 are ongoing. The employers’ side has emphasised the extremely difficult financial climate that colleges continue to operate in and confirmed that sixth-form colleges cannot keep pace with pay awards agreed in the wider public sector and, in particular, part-funded awards agreed by government for schoolteachers.”
He added that employers remained “keen to ensure teachers’ pay within colleges remains as competitive as possible with the wider education sector, and that all staff are recognised for their outstanding work, but without additional funding for colleges this is extremely difficult to achieve. Industrial action is always disappointing, but NEU is directing this action at the government because of the chronic underfunding in the sector, something we all hope will be resolved very soon.”
Sixth day of strike action
Meanwhile, members of the University and College Union at Tower Hamlets campus of New City College will walk out on strike tomorrow in their sixth day of action in a row over pay and conditions. According to the UCU, the walkout falls during the college’s enrolment period, and members will be joined on the picket line by general secretary Jo Grady.
The union said that the dispute centred on the college’s failure to make a decent pay offer to staff, who have seen the value of their pay decline by 25 per cent in the past decade. It added that the college could not hide behind government cuts when it came to staff pay, and urged college leaders to follow the lead of the Capital City College Group, which agreed a 5 per cent pay deal for its 1,700 staff in London.
UCU members at the college are also calling for action to tackle rising workloads, as well as improvements to contracts and formal recognition for trade unions.
UCU regional support official Caroline Lake said: “Strike action is never taken lightly but the fact that UCU members at New City College have taken six days of strike action shows they will not simply stand by and watch their pay and conditions decline. The college cannot continue to hide behind government cuts when it comes to staff pay. Instead, it should follow the lead of other colleges who have worked with us to address members’ concerns and improve pay and conditions.”
A spokesperson for the college said: “Unlike many colleges in the sector, New City College has so far been able to make an annual pay award and chief executive Gerry McDonald has already made a commitment to his staff to make a further - unfunded - pay award for 2019-20. NCC is also doing all that we can to lobby the government for a positive settlement in the imminent one-year spending statement. The UCU strike will not affect the enrolment process; we will, of course, continue to welcome our new students and give them the best possible start to their college experience.”
