Workers at five London colleges have won wage increases after having taken 7 days of action. The further education colleges are Croydon, Carshalton, Kingston, Merton and South Thames . Staff at Croydon accepted a deal on pay and conditions which incudes a backdated 2% increase and 5% for lower-paid staff in learning support and a minimum salary for qualified teachers of around £30,000.
Workers at colleges grouped in the South Thames Colleges Group, – South Thames, Merton, Kingston and Carshalton colleges- have been offered a pay rise, which for those earning under £23,000 includes an increase of just above 2.5%.
Another victory this week at the Capital City College Group. Agreement will see a new teaching and learning policy, measures to reduce workloads as well as a levelling of pay across the group and a one-off pay award. UCU members at Capital City College Group (CCCG) have this week agreed a deal after ten days of strike action. At CCCG, which includes City and Islington College, College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London (CONEL) and Westminster Kingsway College, an imposed open classroom model that would have allowed lecturers to be observed at any time by any manager has been abandoned in favour of three 15 to 20 minute visits a year, with notification. The imposed policy also linked observation performance to capability, allowing staff to be fast tracked out of the college. This has also now been taken out.
The deal will also see pay and holidays levelled across the group. Lecturers at CONEL will now – in line with other colleges in the group – be put on London weighting (worth £1,700) and also be moved onto the CCCG contract, which adds an additional £1,500 to their pay packets and provides three days extra holiday.
This kind of action needs to be spread throughout the education sector. Education workers have been put at risk through out the pandemic because of the high prevalence of Covid among young people. They need to be compensated for all their efforts to work in such difficult conditions.
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