Duncan Moore, UCU NEC, personal capacity
University and college staff are waiting for offers from their respective employers’ bodies. Education unions should be preparing now for a serious fight.
Universities
The joint university unions’ pay claim is for at least RPI-inflation plus 2% or a flat rate of at least £2,500, whichever is greater, along with reform of the pay spine to restore incremental pay progression.
The first offer from the University and College Employer’s Association (UCEA) to the joint higher education sector unions was a pay uplift for university staff of between 2.5% and 5.7% for the lowest paid, falling short of the unions’ pay claim.
UCEA blames falling international student numbers and frozen tuition fees for domestic students during the recent period of high inflation. This offer was conditional on the unions accepting a deferral clause; institutions may delay the pay uplift for up to eleven months!
Following a branch delegate meeting in August to debate the offer, UCU’s Higher Education Committee (HEC) voted to reject. Further pay negotiation took place throughout August and UCU is awaiting a final offer.
Further education
In further education (FE), the Labour government has announced there will be no new funding for colleges in England. The Association of Colleges is yet to make its pay recommendation to college principals, who will then decide what they offer in each case. There is no national bargaining in FE.
The joint trade union claim is for 10% or a £3,000 rise, whichever is greater; a starting salary of £30,000 for all college lecturers, and for binding national pay bargaining. This aspires to close the gap between college and school teachers’ pay within three years, and begin to make up for the 40% cut in wages for FE lecturers since 2010.
The unions for FE in Wales are asking for a pay lift that matches schoolteachers in Wales, and are in pay negotiations with the Labour-led Welsh government.
The ball is now in the University and College Union (UCU) leadership’s court to begin preparing the membership to hold a formal ballot of both HE and FE staff in pursuit of our pay claims, the bare minimum that is needed now to restore our pay and living standards after 14 years of Tory austerity. This must be the first step in ending the financial crisis in post-16 education, and the broken marketised model.
- In Scotland, college lecturers in the EIS union have taken a series of strikes and have now voted to accept an improved pay offer. The offer includes 4.1% for 2025-26 and £5,000 to cover the preceding three years. It is reported that the Scottish government has agreed an increase in funding to cover the costs. While this still doesn’t cover lost wages, the FE unions in England and Wales should take away from this that striking is the best strategy for winning pay rises and funding.
