The claim is based on the following key points:
- The loss in the value of staff pay in recent years has not been addressed by the NJF non-binding recommendations.
- Pay in the sector has fallen in real terms 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 with schools in particular;
- 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 action is needed on the unsustainable increases in workload and stress placed on staff.
- In the next 3 years there will be 60,000 more students entering FE; 50 % of lecturing staff leave within the first three years1
- There should be standard annual and weekly maximums for FE teachers.
- All additional sector funding must be ring-fenced for staff pay to address the retention and recruitment crisis.
- Nobody should be paid less than the nationally recognised Living Wage rate, which has become a benchmark for the minimum level of decentpay across the UK and is now paid by large sections of the public services and many major private companies;
- Meaningful national bargaining with binding outcomes and a new national agreement is necessary to make effective use of sector resources.
Doing what we have always done is no longer an option. This pay claim recognises that and
calls for:
1) Pay - Full restoration of the significant cut to real pay in FE over the past 15years
Achieved by:
- A 10% or £3000 increase in pay, whichever is greater. This is a first step to restore the significant cuts to pay over the past 15 years.
- All colleges to become Foundation Living Wage employers.
- Action to close the pay gap between FE and schoolteachers’ pay within three years.
- The minimum starting pay for an FE lecturer to be the same as schoolteachers mstarting pay.
- The AoC agree to time limited talks on the introduction of standardized increments and pay scales.
- Joint work with a commitment to close gender, ethnic and disability pay gaps.
2) A joint position to bring fully funded national bargaining, with binding outcomes to the FE sector.
Achieved by:
- Agreement on a new national pay agreement in FE that has binding outcomes.
3) Meaningful Action on Workload
Achieved by:
- Setting a maximum of weekly and annual teaching hours and evening and weekend work.
- Agreement on the definition of a ‘teaching hour’.
- The resourcing of more support staff.
- Nationally agreed class size recommendations.
- Agreed national policy on the delivery of guided learning hours.
- A set of agreed boundaries for contacting staff by email or phone.
A set of agreed workload and wellbeing protocols.