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Unions accuse colleges of shameful hypocrisy on pay

30 June 2009

Further education unions - GMB, UCU, UNISON and Unite - today accused college heads of hypocrisy on pay after figures revealed that 80 colleges across England had boosted their principals' salaries by more than 50% in 8 years.

Union compiled data on pay in the sector, shows that principals' pay increased on average by 41.6%, taking some principals' salaries as high as £184,000 a year.

By contrast the Association of Colleges (AoC) this week offered FE staff a 1.5% increase; worth just 8p an hour for the lowest paid.

Chris Fabby, UNISON national officer and joint trade union side secretary, said: 'Why should there be one rule for those at the top of the pay scale, and another for those at the bottom? 80 colleges have boosted their principals' pay by more than 50% in the last eight years. Now the vast majority earns more than £100,000. "The FE sector is meant to be about improving the life chances for people. However, too many college principals are happy to take home huge pay rises at the same time as refusing to pay even the nationally agreed minimum pay increase to their lowest paid staff - it's rank hypocrisy. To add insult to injury some of these colleges are now rushing to make unjustified job cuts.'

Barry Lovejoy, UCU head of FE and joint trade union side secretary, said: 'It is quite incredible and rather distasteful that principals have enjoyed such exorbitant pay rises, when so many are looking to keep down staff pay and make redundancies. It should not come as a surprise that staff are sometimes sceptical when their 'leaders' ask for belts to be tightened or talk of urgent restructuring.

'Further education staff have a crucial role to play in lifting Britain out of the recession, and deserve to be paid a fair living wage. With so many jobs at risk, these figures are just a slap in the face.'

While we are seeing an explosion in principals' pay - some colleges are only paying some of their support staff the statutory minimum wage - as low as £3.53 per hour, with the average cleaner's salary in FE being just £5.80 per hour.

Pay levels are made worse because more than a third of colleges are refusing to pay the nationally agreed minimum salary increase of £550 to the lowest paid for 2008-09. At the same time as refusing to honour the nationally agreed pay deals deal for their lowest paid staff, some senior post-holders' pocketed pay increases of up to 24% in 08-09 (see table 1).

Key findings of work undertaken by the unions show that:

  • 80 colleges increased their principals' pay by more than 50% between 2001-02 and 2007-08, with seven colleges boosting principals' pay by more than 100%.
  • 164 principals earned more than £100,000 in 2007-08.
  • The highest earning principal in 2007-08 was at Newcastle College, earning £184,000 per year, closely followed by the principal of Barnfield College on £173,000.
  • in total, college principals across the UK were paid £25,568,000 in 2007-08.
  • of the 79 colleges who refused to honour the 2008/09 national pay deal for college staff, 38 paid their principals more than £100,000.
  • of these same colleges, 18 awarded their senior post-holders eye watering pay increases in 2008/09. Increases included North Devon College (up to 21%) and West Suffolk College (up to 24%). (see table 1)
  • the highest paid principal in 2008/09 at a college that did not pay the minimum salary uplift for the lowest paid was at Lewisham College, where the Principal is paid £161,000. Performance related bonuses for senior managers at this college ranged up to 5% which, in cash terms, equates to £26,602.
  • the lowest pay rates in the 79 colleges who did not pay the national agreed £550 uplift to staff were £4.17 at Brooksby Melton College and £5.52 at Orpington College. (see table 2)

TABLE 1

College Pay increase to senior managers and/or post-holders 08-09 Principals pay
Huntingdonshire Regional College 2% - 5% £88,084
Dunstable College 2.5% - 7.03% £101,284
Strode College 3.2% - 4.5% £121,272
Selby College 3.2% - 11.9% £100,000
Oaklands College 3.5% - 9% £130,000
West Kent College 4.5% - 9% £120,330
Otley College Up to 4.95% £95,500
South Devon College 4.9% - 6% £133,000
Grantham College 5.40% £96,985
Plumpton College 5.20% £83,542
Bradford College 3% - 7% £141,947
Bridgewater College 7.1% - 9.5% £141,464 (07/08)
Northbrook College 3% - 7.3% £124,629
Alton College 7.8% - 8.5% £92,250
West Suffolk College 15% - 24% £115,000
North Devon College Up to 21% £136,019


NB. Table showing the colleges where the AOC deal of £550 increase for the lowest paid staff was not honoured in the 2008/09 pay round in comparison to what they gave senior managers/post-holders pay increases and salaries.

TABLE 2

College Bottom rate of pay
Brooksby Melton College £4.17
Orpington College £5.52
West Kent College £5.73
Cirencester College £5.82
Aylesbury College £5.92
East Durham College £5.88
Otley College £5.90
Braintree College £5.92
Northbrook College £5.92
South East Derbyshire College £5.98
Fircroft College £5.99
Selby College £6.00


NB. Table showing examples of colleges who have minimum pay rates under £6 per hour. These colleges also refused to pay the nationally agreed £550 underpinning to their lowest paid staff in the 2008/09 pay round.

Background information

  1. Figures are taken from the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) principals pay data for 2001-02 compared with the 2007-08 data
  2. The £184,000 salary was paid to the Principal of Newcastle College in 2007-08
  3. The lowest minimum rate of pay is taken from the Lifelong Learning UK's (LLUK) staff individualised record survey for 2007-08 showing that the average annual pay for a FE college cleaner including overtime was £11,330 or £5.80 per hour
  4. The AoC 2008-09 pay recommendation was for 3.2% or £550 to the lowest paid staff (classed as those staff earning under £17,000)
  5. Information comes from FOI requests against the 79 colleges who failed to pay staff the nationally agreed pay award this year and from the Learning Skills Council annual survey of colleges.

NB Freedom of Information requests were sent to colleges between 5 March 2009 - 1 June 2009.

Last updated: 11 December 2015

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