Wigan college staff to take part in 'biggest-ever' strike ballot

The University and College Union (UCU) announced the ballot will launch on Tuesday, September 5 at 89 college employers.

It is demanding a pay offer to help staff in the cost-of-living crisis, a national workload agreement and binding national pay negotiations.

The ballot comes after school teachers accepted a pay award of 6.5 per cent for 2023/24, with funding provided by the Department for Education.

An extra £470m was allocated for colleges over the next two years, which education secretary Gillian Keegan said was “equivalent” to the funding going to schools to meet their 6.5 per cent pay rise.

So far employer body the Association of Colleges has failed to recommend any pay award for 2023/24.

UCU says the pay gap between school and college teachers is more than £9,000, college staff work an average of two days extra every week for no additional pay and salaries have fallen 35 per cent behind RPI inflation over the past 12 years.

General secretary Jo Grady said: “Hundreds of millions of pounds in extra funding is coming into further education and it needs to be shared with the workers who provide the teaching and support students.

"The Government announced the extra money over a month ago, but the employer body we are supposed to bargain with has not yet made a pay recommendation for the coming year. We need proper bargaining and binding national commitments.

"Our members are fed up with low pay and high workloads and they will be voting for strike action if employers fail to meet our demands.”