21 March 2006

College pay talks to open today

Further education college staff unions will today (Tuesday) begin talks about pay for the forthcoming academic year with their employers, the Association of Colleges.

The six unions which comprise the FE National Joint Forum, including NATFHE – The University & College Lecturers’ Union, have made a joint claim for a 7% pay increase for their members in 2006/7.

For NATFHE members, this increase would represent a significant move forwards in narrowing the estimated 10% pay gap between college lecturers and schoolteachers.

Crucially, the unions’ claim for next year also includes a call for colleges to pay a previous pay agreement in full. The two-year ‘Modernising Pay Agreement’ was hailed by the unions and employers as a breakthrough step in achieving pay parity between college lecturers and schoolteachers. All colleges were recommended to implement it by August 2004. But 20 months later, 57% of colleges have failed to pay a key element of the deal.

To make matters worse, last year (2005/6) the Association of Colleges offered college lecturers a rise of just 2.8% which NATFHE rejected. The union highlighted such an increase would only widen the pay gap with schoolteachers, who were given a 3.2% rise for the same period. That led to NATFHE declaring an industrial dispute. Thousands of college lecturers around the country joined in a one-day national strike last November.

Barry Lovejoy, NATFHE’s head of colleges, said:

‘We’re now expecting a serious pay offer that compensates for the very disappointing offer we got this year and finally brings us closer to pay parity with schoolteachers. The persistent unfair pay gap is demoralising for our members in colleges and must deter a lot of young teachers from entering further education.

‘We recognise that colleges face a difficult funding situation but we believe that the national employers can do much more to help colleges honour the pay increases that lecturers were promised 20 months ago.’

A further pay talks meeting is scheduled for May 10.

Notes to editors

The six unions of the National Joint Forum are NATFHE, the University & College Lecturers’ Union, UNISON, the Association of College Managers, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, the TGWU, and the GMB.  

Pay history:

2006/7
On Tuesday, March 21 NATFHE will make a claim for a 7% pay rise and the full implementation of the 2003/5 pay deal (see below) to employers, the Association of Colleges.

2005/6
In 2005, NATFHE made a pay claim for a 7% pay rise and the full implementation of the 2003/5 pay deal (see below) to employers, the Association of Colleges. In response, the AoC offered a 2% rise from August 1, 2005, followed by a 0,8% rise from January 2006. NATFHE negotiators rejected that offer arguing that it would only worsen the existing 10% pay gap between lecturers and schoolteachers. NATFHE declared an industrial dispute and lecturers overwhelmingly voted for a one-day strike which was staged in November.

2003/5
A two-year deal which offered a 3% increase to all lecturers in 2003/4 followed by a second 3% increase in 2004/5, was agreed between NATFHE and the Association of Colleges. In the second year, the deal also included the introduction of a new, shorter pay scale that would give further increases. This deal would mean the maximum salary for qualified lecturers would be raised to £30,705, and the starting salary increased to £20,283 for qualified teaching staff. To date, it has only been fully implemented by 43% of colleges.

Contact
Vicky Wilks, press officer; 020-7520 3207/07970-383995

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