FE agreements in Wales

Colegau Cymru is the employers' body in Wales. It represents all the FE colleges, St David's sixth form college and Workers Education Association (WEA). Representatives of Colegau Cymru meet with the full time officials and lay negotiators of the recognised unions to reach agreement on pay and conditions of service in Wales.

National Contract

March 2012: The Joint Trade Unions are currently negotiating with Colegau Cymru a new national contract for all staff employed in further education colleges in Wales. We are currently discussing version 15 of the draft contract and version six of the draft workload agreement. There are still significant differences of opinion on what hours of work and holidays should be in the final contract.

Colegau Cymru are of the view that the contract should be ready for use by those colleges in the process of merger or those recently merged and offered to new starter from next academic year. No agreement has been reached on the process of implementation; this will be discussed once we have a final draft of the contract ready to recommend to our membership.

See also:  Wales FE recommended salary scales

Below are the agreements currently in force in relation to threshold progression and part-time agreement

•  Agreement on the employment of part-time lecturing staff in FE (Wales) (.doc) [35kb]
•  Agreement on the employment of instructor/demonstrator staff in FE (Wales), Nov 05 (.doc) [23kb]
•  Threshold agreement (pay settlement for 2005-06) (.pdf) [422kb]
   Threshold agreement (pay settlement for 2005-06) (.doc) [71kb]

Each college has an agreement on Performance Management and Review (PMAR) which outlines the application process to achieve threshold progression, a copy of that agreement can be obtained from your branch officers. UCU and the employers' body produced national guidance on the operation of PMAR, which should be reflected in those agreements.

•  Model agreement on the implementation of the national agreement on performance management and review systems in FE in Wales (.doc) [75kb]
•  Guidance notes on the introduction of performance management and review systems in FE in Wales (.doc) [84kb]

UCU would like all colleges to adopt the above model for the operation of PMAR.

Other agreements

Historicially agreements affecting FE in Wales were negotiated and reached alongside English colleges with the Association of College in a National Joint Forum. Agreements not yet superceded by subsequent negotiation with Colegau Cymru above are available on the England agreements page for information.