Staff
at further education colleges are striking today – closing many colleges for
the first time in a decade.
The
workers are striking over a 2.3 per cent pay offer which they say will be worth
as little as 13p an hour to support staff.
Unions
want a pay offer that will close the 12 per cent gap between college and school
staff.
Chris
Kaufman, national secretary at the Transport and General Workers’ Union, said
the Association of Colleges has brought this dispute upon itself.
"The
employers have made the lowest pay offer in the public sector at just 2.3 per
cent," he said.
"They
have refused to improve upon that offer despite government guarantees of extra
funding for colleges this year. The employers also took legal action in a
failed attempt to get today’s strike action halted.
"The
effects of all this have been to poison the atmosphere of partnership working,
which has benefited both employers and unions. Above all, they have put at risk
not just future trust for FE workers and the Government, but national
bargaining and the future funding of FE."
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