Teachers at sixth form colleges including Birmingham to ballot over strike action
Lecturers at a number of sixth form colleges are being balloted on taking strike action in a dispute over pay. The National Education Union (NEU) members are being asked whether they want to take action after academised sixth form colleges have been guaranteed funding to put in place a 5.5 per cent pay increase, the same pay award for school teachers.
While those that teach in colleges, which are not academies, have not received the same offer. There are some 40 such colleges in England including Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College in Highgate in Birmingham.
The teaching union, which represents the majority of sixth form college teachers in the sector, has criticised the new Labour Government for not treating all college lecturers the same. And said allowing the pay gap between school and college teachers to increase would be an ‘abrogation of responsibility’.
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The NEU said pay for sixth form college teachers is set through collective bargaining at the national joint council (NJC) with the Sixth Form College Association (SFCA). It said ‘this arrangement has enabled a longstanding productive industrial relations framework’.
It added pay for teachers in sixth form colleges is broadly comparable to pay for teachers in schools, while being lower overall. And said: “In contrast, pay in FE [further education] colleges has fallen dramatically behind schools, with the gap between teacher pay in FE colleges and schools reaching £9,300 in 2023/24.”
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Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said: “The decision by the government to award funding to some sixth form colleges and not to others undermines an effective system of collective bargaining. This flies in the face of the Labour’s manifesto commitment to good faith negotiation and bargaining.
“It would be an abrogation of responsibility by the new Labour government to allow the pay gap between schools and colleges to widen further, when the opportunity is there to support a crucial sector for economic growth through ending pay inequality between schools and colleges.
“NEU teachers in the affected sixth form colleges are ready to fight for a fair pay award for all. The NEU believe that the government should revisit the decision not to fund non-academised sixth form colleges, to avoid a damaging and unnecessary dispute.”
Fill list of sixth form colleges where teachers will be balloted:
Aquinas College (Stockport)
Barton Peveril Sixth Form College (Eastleigh)
Bexhill College (Bexhill-on-Sea)
Blackpool Sixth Form College
Bolton Sixth Form College
Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College
Cardinal Newman College (Preston)
Carmel College (St Helens)
Christ The King Sixth Form College (Lewisham and Sidcup)
Capital City College – Angel (Islington)
Franklin College (Grimsby)
Greenhead College (Huddersfield)
Henley College
Hills Road Sixth Form College (Cambridge)
Holy Cross College (Bury)
Huddersfield New College
Itchen College (Southampton)
John Leggott Sixth Form College (Scunthorpe)
Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College (Birmingham)
Leyton Sixth Form College
Loreto College (Manchester)
Luton Sixth Form College
Newham 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 Dominic's Sixth Form College (Harrow)
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)