UCU to launch England wide college strike ballot over pay, workloads and national bargaining

Ballots will open on Monday 13 October and run until Monday 17 November.

The ballot comes after employer body, the Association of Colleges (AoC), recommended a pay award of just 4%. However, it also accepted that many colleges could not afford to raise pay by even that percentage and there is no obligation on employers to do so.

UCU, alongside its sister unions NEU, GMB, UNISON and Unite is calling for a New Deal for FE, including a 10%/£3000 pay rise.

Key demands include:

• FE pay parity with schoolteachers' pay
• national workload agreements
• a new binding national bargaining framework.

The union will meet to decide the next steps in the coming weeks and said college leaders across England now have a clear choice; make a serious offer or face potential industrial action later this year. 

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: 'It is unacceptable that following years of pay degradation, college staff are expected to stomach further real-terms pay cuts, while at the same time dealing with ever-higher workloads. The Prime Minister said this week that Labour wants to put further education on an equal footing with higher education, but this will be impossible unless the government tackles the issues causing half of college teachers to leave the sector within three years. 

'Further education staff are the beating heart of our communities and transform the life chances of hundreds of thousands of students every year. They shouldn't be forced to ballot for industrial action just to get decent pay and conditions. Staff, students and local communities deserve better. Colleges must pay our members fairly and ensure manageable workloads. These changes must be underpinned by a new national collective bargaining structure for the sector. Our demands are reasonable. If they are not met, the sector will face serious disruption in the coming months'  

Notes 

List of college employers being balloted:

• Abingdon and Witney College
• Activate Learning
• Barnet and Southgate College
• Bath College 
• Birmingham Metropolitan College 
• Bishop Auckland College 
• Blackburn College 
• Blackpool & The Fylde College 
• Bournemouth & Poole College 
• Bradford College 
• Brockenhurst College 
• Burnley College 
• Bury College 
• Cambridge Regional College 
• Capital City College Group 
• Chesterfield College 
• Chichester College Group 
• City College Norwich  
• City of Bristol College 
• City of Liverpool College 
• City of Portsmouth College 
• City of Wolverhampton College 
• Coastland College 
• Coventry College 
• Croydon College 
• Dudley College of Technology 
• Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College 
• East Sussex College Group 
• Exeter College 
• Gateshead College 
• Gloucestershire College 
• Halesowen College 
• Hopwood Hall College 
• Hugh Baird College 
• Isle of Wight College 
• Kirklees College 
• Lakes College West Cumbria 
• South Bank Colleges 
• Lancaster and Morecambe College 
• Leicester College 
• Loughborough College Group 
• Morley College 
• Nelson and Colne College Group 
• New City College 
• New College Swindon 
• NCG 
• Oldham College 
• Petroc 
• Runshaw College 
• The Sheffield College 
• SK College Group 
• South & City College Birmingham 
• South Devon College 
• South Gloucestershire and Stroud College 
• South Staffordshire College 
• South Thames College Group 
• Stanmore College 
• Stoke-on-Trent College 
• Truro and Penwith College 
• University Centre Somerset College Group 
• Walsall College 
• Warwickshire College Group 
• Wigan and Leigh College 
• Wiltshire College 
• Windsor Forest Colleges Group 
• Wirral Metropolitan College 
• Working Men's College 
• York College