Respect FE 2023: important next steps

The FE officers discussed the considerable resource challenges faced by the union in supporting both higher education (HE) national disputes, the optimal timing for launching the FE national pay campaign 2023/24, the supporting campaign and communication strategy and how to maximize branch and member engagement with the pay campaign and claim for 2023/24.

The FE officers made the following decisions:

• an online special FE sector conference (SFESC) to take place on Saturday 1 April. The business of the SFESC will be to agree the pay campaign for 2023/24 and an aggregate ballot in support of the campaign. Further details about the SFESC and the calling notice will be communicated to branches this Friday, 10 February. The calling notice will have important dates relating to the timeline in which branches need to meet and agree motions and the deadlines for submitting those motions, as well as how to register your SFESC delegates. The SFESC will be online and will run 10.00am - 1.00pm. This will be a very important conference and it's hoped that having an online Saturday meeting that ends at lunchtime will maximize branch participation
• the SFESC will determine when UCU moves to dispute with the employers and a ballot of branches on an aggregated basis. An aggregate ballot is one where all the branches in the dispute are balloted together at the same time. It will be a nationally organised ballot and its essential that UCU achieves a 50% plus turnout, and yes vote, of those branches to move to industrial action. There are pros and cons with both aggregate and disaggregate ballots. A successful aggregate ballot means all FE branches in the dispute taking industrial action at the same time. There is a single set of common demands that branches are in dispute over. However, being part of a nationally aggregate ballot means branches cannot submit their own pay claims. Also branches cannot accept individuals offers made by their management to resolve the national dispute, even if their members wanted to accept it. Look out for further communications explaining the difference between aggregated and disaggregated ballots
• before the SFESC there will be a consultative e-ballot of members opening on Friday 3 March and closing on Friday 24 March. The consultative e-ballot will give members the opportunity to express their support for industrial action for the 2023/24 claim and an aggregate ballot. Before the e-ballot opens, the FE campaign will be launched. The campaign mirrors that of the successful UCU Rising campaign in HE, but this will have a distinct FE focus. Materials and supporting communications will be developed and sent to branches. Branches should view this consultation as a get the vote out (GTVO) trial run in anticipation of an aggregate ballot. This means membership records will need to be updated and membership contact details refreshed. This will take a bit of time so please start as soon as possible. Branch briefings will take place during the consultative e-ballot. More details about the briefings will be communicated next week
• FEC has agreed the headlines for the pay claim, which will be further developed with the other FE England unions ( Unison, Unite, NEU and GMB) and submitted to the Association of Colleges (AOC) as soon as possible. FEC wants the negotiations to conclude early this year. The headlines of the claim are for an inflation plus pay increase, a workload agreement, meaningful national bargaining, and a just transition/ green new deal demand. Updates on the development of the claim with the other unions and the negotiations with the AoC will be communicated in due course.