Protests at college lecturers' pay talks

The talks, between unions and the Association of Colleges (AoC), are part of efforts to thrash out a pay deal for further education staff in England who have seen their pay fall by 15% in real terms since 2009 and must now also meet higher monthly pension contributions.

The lobby on 16 May will start at 9am outside the Institute of Arbitrators in central London with talks due to get underway at 10am.

According to the Office for National Statistics* lecturers in further education are paid around 7%, or £2,300, a year less than their colleagues teaching in schools, despite teaching the same subjects.

The average contractual working week for a lecturer in a further education college is 36 hours, yet over half work at least 12 hours more a week. The union said this is likely to contribute to the high levels of stress [227kb] reported by staff in further education.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: 'This culture of working harder for less pay has to stop. College lecturers have seen their pay decline by 15% since 2009, while pension contributions, workloads and stress levels have gone up.

'The employers need to make a pay offer that goes someway to making up for the decline in pay further education staff have endured in recent years.'

* Table 14