January 2025 update - sixth-form colleges pay dispute
An industrial action ballot of members working in sixth-form colleges has opened.
The ballot is over the failure to offer all teachers working in sixth-form colleges a fair and equitable pay offer for 2024/25. The ballot will run until Monday 10 February.
The Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA) has offered a 5.5% pay award to teachers working in sixth-form college academies, but only on the condition that teachers working in non-academised sixth-form colleges accept a pay offer of 3.5% from September 2024 to April 2025. These teachers would only receive 5.5% from April 2025 - seven months later than their colleagues.
NASUWT is balloting 77 sixth-form colleges and academies.
Dr Patrick Roach, NASUWT General Secretary, said, ‘The SFCA is asking unions to agree that approximately 50% of sixth-form college teachers are paid less for seven months than others doing exactly the same job. This is completely unjustified and we will not accept such unfairness and inequity.
‘We have sought to enter into negotiations on pay in good faith, but the SFCA has refused to disclose to us details of the agreement it has reached with the government on funding. We have therefore been left with no other option than to move to ballot members.
‘We are clear that if any college commits to a 5.5% award backdated to September, they will avoid action, but we need a national commitment to ensure that all sixth-form teachers receive the same 5.5% pay award regardless of where they work.
‘The employers have no excuse and no justification for putting their interests ahead of recognising and rewarding hard-working and dedicated sixth-form college teachers.’
December 2024 pay update
Sixth-form teachers’ pay ballot
NASUWT members in sixth-form colleges recently participated in an indicative survey poll of members working in all sixth-form colleges, including 16-19 academies.
Members in the majority of sixth-form colleges said that they would support a ballot for industrial action to secure an acceptable pay award for sixth-form college teachers.
Seventy-nine per cent of members who voted said they would support strike action for better pay and 93% said they would also support action short of strike action.
NASUWT is concerned that teachers in sixth-form colleges have not yet received a cost of living pay award for this academic year.
NASUWT believes that the current situation has to change:
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It’s not right
Sixth-form college teachers deserve a pay award for this year. The failure to deliver a pay award for sixth-form college teachers means that your pay in real terms is worth less than it was a year ago. But more than that, it’s not right that teachers in schools doing the same job have received a 5.5% pay award this year while sixth-form college teachers have received no pay award. -
It’s plain wrong
The government provided additional funding worth £1.2 billion for all academies, including 16-19 academies, to enable them to deliver a 5.5% pay award as a minimum. We think it’s plain wrong for 16-19 academy employers to hold onto this money rather than use it to pay sixth-form college teachers. NASUWT is absolutely clear that there is no justification for delaying the pay award to teachers in 16-19 academies. -
It’s not acceptable
In all sixth-form colleges, it is essential that teachers receive an appropriate cost of living pay award for this year. We believe it’s simply not acceptable for the employer organisation (the SFCA) to delay making an appropriate pay offer and deny sixth-form college teachers the pay award they deserve.
As a result of feedback from you and other members working in sixth-form colleges across the country, NASUWT has declared an official trade dispute with all sixth-form college employers.
We want sixth-form college employers and the SFCA to respond positively with an appropriate pay offer for sixth-form college teachers. Only your employer can resolve this dispute because your pay is for your employer to decide.
We are clear that we believe this dispute can be resolved now. However, we will also be conducting a formal ballot of NASUWT members working in sixth-form colleges in the new year.
By standing together, we can put even more pressure onto your employers to deliver the pay award you deserve. Details of the NASUWT postal ballot will be sent to all eligible members in January.
Thank you for your continued support. Make your voice heard in the teachers’ pay ballot.
November 2024 pay update
In October, an offer of a 2% cost of living uplift was made by the Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA) to the staff side teaching unions. The staff side response was that this was not acceptable given that it is not within our pay claim for an above RPI inflation award and is below the award to school teachers of 5.5%.
This offer applies to teachers in both sixth-form academies and sixth-form colleges (non-academised).
The meeting was adjourned while the SFCA made further representations to the government about the current disparity in funding between the SFC academies and SFC colleges (non-academised).
NASUWT has also made further representations to the government regarding funding for the pay uplift and the effect of this on collective bargaining and pay negotiations.
The SFCA has launched a judicial review over the government’s decision. SFC academies were awarded part of the funding which was allocated to schools for the school teachers’ pay uplift, while sixth-form colleges (non-academised) and FE colleges have not been awarded any additional funding towards pay.
This anomaly is due to funding for all academies coming from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), while funding for non-academised sixth-form colleges is from the post-16/FE funding stream. This is in contrast to last year, when additional funding was provided to schools, sixth-form colleges and FE colleges for a 6.5% pay award.
FE and post-16 institutions have been granted £300 million for the academic year 2025/26. However, this funding will not be received until April 2025 and the DFE has not clarified whether there are restrictions on how this funding is spent.
We will be meeting the SFCA again as soon as possible.
For full details, please see the November bulletin above.
Do you have an NASUWT Representative at your college?
If you do not have an NASUWT Representative in your college, this is an opportunity to elect a Workplace Representative or a team of Workplace Representatives.
Email the Sixth-form inbox if you or your colleagues wish to become a Rep or form a Reps Team and for further details of your Regional Centre.
Please note that our recent ballot only included colleges where our members are subject to Sixth Form College Association pay scales and terms of conditions of employment. These are available on our Sixth-form Pay Scales page.
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