A new deal for further education

You can read full details of the decisions made here but the headlines of what your representatives agreed are:    

• a campaign for a new deal for FE workers involving: 
  • a 10%/£3000 pay rise
  • parity with schoolteacher pay within 3 years
  • a minimum starting salary of £30,000 
  • reform of the pay spine
  • close equality pay gaps
  • national agreements on workload
  • a return to national bargaining
  • putting FE at the heart of a new government's plans.

This is a rightly ambitious set of campaign demands, and you deserve nothing less. Delivering on these will take time and effort, and we will use every tool at our disposal to achieve them.

Shortly, we will announce plans to back every branch to engage in intense local bargaining in every college. We will support your branch to develop a local claim to negotiate with your college management. Not only will this deliver improvements for you in your college, but it will bring pressure to bear on our employers nationally. This is the first step towards winning binding national bargaining.

Most importantly, the union will be asking every FE member to get involved. Members are at the heart of this campaign and we'll be inviting you to online and face-to-face meetings soon. 

And I'll finish on this. Change is possible. Our goals are achievable. Just this week in Northern Ireland--after several years of campaigning--UCU has secured an agreement that has seen our FE members enjoy an 11.2% pay increase, and a starting salary of £30,000.    

In solidarity

Jo Grady  
UCU general secretary