Colleges must deliver on their promise to increase staff pay, the University and Colleges Union (UCU) has said. 

UCU stressed that colleges have seen a £400m funding boost as the base rate for 16 to 18-year-olds increased for the first time since 2013. 

Now that that funding had been allocated to colleges, UCU, alongside Unison, the NEU, GMB and Unite, is calling for what they call a significant move towards the full restoration of college pay levels to where they would have been, had college pay kept pace with inflation since 2009.

In July, the pay gap between school staff and FE staff rose to more than £9,000 a year. 

Unions have also asked for the living wage to be the minimum wage in the sector, for all FE colleges to become accredited living wage employers, and for all contracted-out services to be brought back in-house with improvements in terms and conditions equal to those already directly employed by the college.

Exclusive Tes research in September found that 16.4 per cent of staff in those colleges were on casual, variable, or zero-hour contracts. 

News:  FE and schools pay gap to rise to over £9,000 per year

More: The gap in casual staff pay during lockdown, revealed

Need to know: £400m boost for colleges: 16-18 funding finally raised

‘Staff must be first in line when the money arrives’

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “We have finally seen £400m in extra government funding so colleges must now deliver on their promise to staff that they would be first in line when the money arrives.

 “Any national Covid recovery plan must have further education at its core. But unless colleges honour their promise to pay staff, it will be impossible to attract and retain the staff colleges need to be able to play their role in the national recovery effort.”

NEU joint general secretary Dr Mary Bousted said: “We need urgent action to restore the huge real-terms pay cuts in further education. Staff in further education have a vital role to play in our economy and society. We must ensure that their pay reflects that key role, starting with a significant restoration of the real-terms cuts in this pay round.

“Building back better must mean paying better if we are to succeed in the government’s ambitions for upskilling and reskilling different workforces in the economy.”