Strike Action Cancelled

UPDATE – FURTHER TO THIS STATEMENT FROM 7^TH DECEMBER, THE STRIKE ACTION PLANNED FOR THURSDAY 15^TH DECEMBER HAS BEEN CANCELLED. ALL STUDENTS SHOULD ATTEND LESSONS AS USUAL.

Statement on strike action – Furness College 7/12/2022

The industrial action at Furness College this month is part of wider action taken by the University and College Union (UCU) at a number of colleges and most universities. Colleges are funded by the public purse. The Government has pledged £4billion to support schools which will, in turn, enable them to implement teacher pay increases. Further Education has received no additional funding so, at this point in time, a 10 per cent pay rise is not viable. We are in touch with our MP to urge him to raise the funding disparity with the Secretary of State for Education and the Chancellor.

The current action relates to protracted talks regarding last year’s pay award which was paid in January, and we have agreed to implement the Association of Colleges’ pay recommendation for this academic year but the UCU has not yet responded, and we await confirmation of the union’s willingness to discuss this.

We are in dialogue with the UCU and Professor Wren spoke directly with Iain Owens yesterday but our position on last year’s pay award has, and will, remain the same. We want to safeguard jobs for all our staff.

While the disruption to students is extremely regrettable, we are doing everything we can to minimise the impact on learning.

In the coming weeks, many other colleges are striking as the further education sector continues to feel the squeeze from central funding.

Teaching roles in the education sector offer favourable terms and conditions to some private sector companies, which is part of the reason staff enjoy working here, alongside the excellent pension and the long, paid holiday entitlement that is rightly given to teaching staff and helps retain talented people within our college who could possibly earn more elsewhere.