This week Unison will begin balloting its members in further education colleges on industrial action over an abysmal 2.3% pay offer. A yes vote will be followed by a strike on November 5 - the first national strike in further education involving all staff since incorporation in 1993.
This offer is especially galling since we have spent the past few years trying to build good industrial relations with the Association of Colleges (AoC). We tried to engender a climate of collective responsibility by working closely with them on campaigns for improved funding. This year, in response to the AoC's request, the unions submitted its first ever joint pay claim. The 2.3% pay offer is well below that in other sectors - including education sectors.
School teachers have been offered 3.5%, school staff have been offered a two-year deal worth between 7.7% up to 10% for the lowest paid. In universities, the offer is worth between 3.2% and 5% and in the sixth form colleges, an offer of 3.5% has been accepted by teachers and other staff.
Contrary to what many in further education believe, none of these other pay awards is funded by the government. Local authorities, universities and sixth form colleges all have to find the money from current budgets.
Low cost of living increases come on top of already appallingly low pay levels in colleges. Two-thirds of support staff earn below £13,000 per year and one in five earns less than £10,000. For years, support staff and professional staff in colleges have delivered services, unnoticed, neglected and poorly paid.
The recent welcome announcement of the additional £32m into the sector and the establishment of the principle of a College Pay Initiative covering all staff also highlighted the difference in treatment of teachers and support staff. The annual amount available for the Teaching Pay Initiative (TPI) this year will be £140m but only £12m is available for the College Pay Initiative - shared between 86,000 other staff.
Yes, we appreciate you, is the message to support and other staff - just not very much. The obvious neglect of staff and the apparent lack of care about poverty pay levels cannot go unchallenged forever.
The rationale behind the TPI was to improve standards in teaching and learning and to help colleges address the very real recruitment and retention problems they encounter. Yet most colleges are facing recruitment and retention difficulties at least as great among support staff and professional staff as among teachers and lecturers.
In Unison's annual NOP survey, the response from members in further education colleges shows 46% are actively looking for new jobs. Not surprising, when on top of everything else, the message they are getting seems to be that FE is failing to deliver and by implication staff who work in the sector are failures. Yet the reality is that many FE staff choose to work in education, and feel a loyalty and commitment to the students and their college. These sentiments are equally true of support and professional staff as well as lecturers in colleges.
Tempting as it is to blame the government for all the ills in FE, some of the fault lies with employers. Of course, part of the equation is the way FE is funded, but part of it is also the culture in too many colleges which views pay increases for staff as an optional extra. Unison members are not making unreasonable demands; we want a decent pay increase for all and a commitment to tackling low pay beginning with a minimum starting salary of £11,000. We want to see some progress in discussions about hours of work and annual leave for support staff. Above all, we want FE to begin to act like a national sector and enter into a serious dialogue with the unions about a long-term pay strategy.
Unison will be campaigning for a yes vote in this ballot because we must make it clear that the government and the employers can no longer take the commitment and dedication of staff for granted. Further education is often called the Cinderella service. Yet even Cinderella got to go to the ball eventually. Support staff feel more like the scullery maid in the house next door to Cinderella who only got to watch the coaches roll by. Maybe it's time we organised our own entertainment starting with some fireworks on November 5.
· Christina McAnea is Unison's senior national officer for education staff.
