More strike days planned for sixth form college teachers in pay dispute
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Sixth form college teachers in England will continue strike action in a dispute over pay. More than 2,000 National Education Union (NEU) members in non-academised sixth form colleges will walk out on January 29, February 6 and February 7, the union has announced.
Seven days of strike action have already been taken by NEU members in 32 non-academised colleges since November. The Government announced last year that teachers in schools across England would receive a fully funded 5.5% pay rise from September 2024. The Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA) has offered teachers in non-academised sixth form colleges 3.5% for September 2024 to March this year – and then 5.5% from April, the NEU said.
Meanwhile, teachers in sixth form colleges with academy status have been offered 5.5% from September 2024, seven months earlier than their colleagues in non-academised colleges. The leader of the NEU said the union opposed the “two-tier pay system” which he called “absurd and blatantly unfair”.
Earlier this week, another teaching union, the NASUWT, launched a ballot of more than 1,800 of its members in sixth form colleges in England for industrial action in a fight for a fair pay increase. The ballot of NASUWT members in sixth form colleges – both academies and non-academies – will close on February 10.
