Pay in further education | National Education Union

Planned UCU strike action in Further Education colleges: January 2025

UCU members at 30 colleges across England will take three days of strike action on Wednesday 14, Thursday 15 and Friday 16 January over pay and working conditions.

The law is clear that the NEU can only call members covered by a lawful ballot that we have initiated to go out on strike. Therefore, the union is not calling on our members in the 30 colleges to take strike action on the basis of the successful UCU ballots.

Should an individual member of staff not want to cross the UCU picket line at their college, they are likely to have their pay deducted for the day in the same way as those taking strike action. It is possible for employers to threaten disciplinary action for what is a technical breach of contract, but we would see that as unlikely, inappropriate and provocative. The Union will support all members threatened with disciplinary action.

Local Government Association advice on picketing says: “Where picketing takes place, employees not directly involved in the industrial action may refuse to cross picket lines. Such employees can normally be regarded as being on strike and treated accordingly."

NEU members in Capital City College Sixth Form Centre and City of Portsmouth College and Paston College (within City College Norwich) will take strike action on 14, 15, 16 January either following a successful ballot paralleling those conducted by UCU or in furtherance of an existing dispute with a ballot mandate.

Colleges set to take strike action:

Abingdon & Witney College	Kirklees College
Barnet & Southgate College	Lancaster and Morecambe College
Bournemouth and Poole College of FE	Loughborough College Group
Bradford College	Morley College
Brockenhurst College	Myerscough College
Capital City College	New College Swindon
Chesterfield College	SK College Group
City College Norwich	South & City College
City of Bristol College	South Bank Colleges
City of Liverpool College	Stanmore College
City of Portsmouth College	The Sheffield College
City of Wolverhampton College	Truro & Penwith College
East Sussex College Group	Windsor Forest Colleges Group
Hugh Baird College	Wirral Met College
Isle of Wight College	Working Men's College

FE pay recommendation 2025/26

The joint further education trade unions (GMB, NEU, UCU, Unite and Unison) and the Association of Colleges (AoC) met via the National Joint Forum (NJF) process on 17 September to negotiate a pay recommendation for 2025/26, following the failure of the AoC to make a pay recommendation on 16 June.

The AoC recommended that colleges should make a pay award of 4% for 2025/26 for all staff, 'where their financial circumstances and funding allocations allow them to do so'.

Numerous colleges do not follow the AoC recommendation, which is non-binding and in practice, NEU members should contact their local rep for further information on the local pay bargaining cycle.

The AoC made no firm commitments in respect of the remainder of the joint claim, underpinning the need for binding national bargaining funded by the government.

Responding in a joint statement, the unions commented that 'it's another disappointing outcome to a very unsatisfactory process.'

The joint union pay claim seeks a pay increase of 10% or £3,000, whichever is the greater, and the following:

action to close the pay gap between further education and schools within three years;

a minimum starting salary for lecturers is identical to that of schoolteachers' pay;

all colleges to become Living Wage Foundation employers;

talks on the introduction of standardised pay scales;

joint work with a commitment to close gender, ethnic and disability pay gaps;

meaningful action on workload, including a set of agreed workload and wellbeing protocols;

binding outcomes for national bargaining through a national pay agreement.