The claim recognises the following key points:
- Substantial increases in the cost of living over recent years have significantly reduced the value of staff wages and the rise in prices facing workers is now at a 40-year high;
- Pay recommendations should be binding. The sector has fallen behind inflation by more than 40% since 2009/10. FE pay increases need to be implemented in all colleges to keep up with inflation and start to close the pay gap;
- There should be minimum guaranteed starting salaries for teachers in FE. There should be agreed national pay spines with progression and headroom;
- There should be joint work on recognising and monitoring the scale of, and movement to close, the gender, ethnic and disability pay gaps in FE;
- Appropriate reward is needed to sustain the morale and productivity of staff in their crucial role of delivering high quality education;
- Appropriate action is needed on the unsustainable increases in workload and stress placed on staff;
- Average earnings and pay settlements must be a factor in this year's FE pay talk as they add to the problem of rates running ahead of those received by staff in FE over recent years and increasing the likelihood of recruitment and retention problems in the long term;
- Nobody should be paid less than the nationally recognised Living Wage rate, which has become a benchmark for the minimum level of decent pay across the UK and is now paid by large sections of the public services and many major private companies;
- Meaningful national bargaining and a new national agreement is necessary to make effective use of sector resources.
- The FE sector has an important role in addressing current and future environmental challenges and the joint work on a Just Transition and Green New Deal for FE should continue to be supported and resourced.
Heads of Claim
We are seeking:
Pay
- A 10% or £3000 increase in pay, whichever is greater. This is a first step to restore more than the 40% cut in real pay for FE staff over a decade.
- All colleges to become Foundation Living Wage employers.
- A demand to close the pay gap between FE and schoolteachers’ pay within three years.
- The minimum starting salary for an FE lecturer to be £30,000.
- The AoC agree to time limited talks on the introduction of standardized increments and pay scales.
- A commitment to close gender, ethnic and disability pay gaps.
Workload
- Agreed national policy on the delivery of guided learning hours.
- The resourcing of more administration staff
- Nationally agreed class size recommendations for 16-18 and 19 +
- A set of agreed workload and wellbeing protocols
- A set of agreed boundaries for contacting staff by email or phone
Binding national bargaining
- Agree a new national pay agreement in FE that has binding outcomes.
Wellbeing
- Staff to have access to two mental health days per year.