England's biggest-ever strike ballot will launch on Tuesday 5 September, the University and College Union (UCU) announced today. The ballot will run at 89 English college employers until Tuesday 10 October in a dispute over low pay and poor working conditions.
UCU is demanding a fair pay offer to help staff meet the cost-of-living crisis, a national workload agreement and binding national pay negotiations.
The ballot comes after English school teachers accepted a pay award of 6.5% for 2023/24. The Department for Education provided additional funding for the pay award and also announced an extra £470m for colleges over the next two years, which Secretary of State Gillian Keegan said is "equivalent" to the funding going to schools to meet their 6.5% pay rise.
So far employer body the Association of Colleges (AoC) has failed to recommend any pay award whatsoever for 2023/24. It directs colleges to pay their teachers as little as £26k while the pay gap between school and college teachers is over £9k.
