Balloting for a New Deal for FE

Following a disappointing and non-binding pay recommendation of 4% for FE colleges in England from their representative body, the Association of Colleges (AoC), alongside no meaningful response to the non-pay elements of the New Deal for FE campaign, UCU has now declared disputes with England FE employers. The statutory industrial action ballot closed on Monday 17 November 2025 and the results for your institution are now available here.

The AoC's offer:

• does not close the growing pay gap with schoolteachers pay or start to make good the losses in pay over recent years
• does nothing to address excessive workloads
• does nothing to move us to fully funded and binding national bargaining in further education.

What are UCU's demands?

• a pay increase of 10% or £3000 whichever is the greater
• meaningful action on workload
• a joint position to bring fully funded national bargaining, with binding outcomes to the FE sector.

Look out for your ballot paper!

Why did UCU ballot for strike action?

We always seek to negotiate in good faith with employers. The Association of Colleges (AoC) has failed to recommend a pay rise that would close the gap between FE and schoolteachers, tackle increasingly unmanageable workloads, or repair a broken national bargaining system. We cannot afford to wait passively for change. The time to act is now.

What's the dispute about?

• Pay: the value of FE pay has fallen even further behind teachers in schools, who were recently awarded 4%.
  Our claim for a 10% pay rise is reasonable and a good starting point to begin to close the gap and reverse the decline in FE pay. FE England staff deserve their pay to keep pace with inflation. Pay has fallen around 35% in the last decade but the sector has received additional funding over the last three years. We need to close the gap with schoolteacher's pay. Staff deserve a pay rise.
• Workload: we need national agreements to address unmanageable workloads. UCU research shows excessive and unmanageable workloads are all too prevalent in the sector. FE staff on average work two days for free each week. The impact on staff is significant, and we need action from employers and a national agreement to reset matters. We need limits on annual teaching hours, on weekly teaching hours, evening and weekend work and agreement on class sizes.
• National negotiations: the current system of non-binding recommendations from the AoC doesn't work and this is failing the sector, staff, and students. We need a New Deal for FE. Unlike other parts of the UK where teacher's pay and FE pay is linked, in England the outcomes of national talks are not binding or fully funded, and colleges have no requirement to implement any offer made. FE has been reclassified as part of the public sector. The current national bargaining agreement with non-binding outcomes is failing the sector. We need fully funded national pay bargaining with binding outcomes.

Why you deserve better

FE England staff deserve their pay to keep pace with inflation and pay parity with schoolteachers. Not only has pay fallen 35% in recent years, but over the last few years the sector has received additional funding from the UK government. That funding must go on staff pay. This dispute is about putting pressure on college employers, so the vast majority of FE funding is used to give you a decent pay rise, start to close the gap with schoolteachers pay, as well as pressing employers to engage meaningfully about workloads, and joining with us to work towards a new national settlement for FE.

Resources

A New Deal for FE - poster [1mb]		A New Deal for FE - leaflet [219kb]