From 13 October: VOTE YES to put pressure on the employers to negotiate the settlement we need in FE

Following a disappointing and non-binding pay recommendation of 4% for FE colleges in England from their representative body, the Association of Colleges (AoC), alongside no meaningful response to the non-pay elements of the New Deal for FE campaign, UCU has now declared disputes with England FE employers and will open a statutory industrial action ballot on Monday 13 October 2025. The AoC’s offer:

• does not close the growing pay gap with schoolteachers pay or start to make good the losses in pay over recent years
• does nothing to address excessive workloads
• does nothing to move us to fully funded and binding national bargaining in further education.

What are UCU’s demands?

• a pay increase of 10% or £3000 whichever is the greater
• meaningful action on workload
• a joint position to bring fully funded national bargaining, with binding outcomes to the FE sector.

Why is UCU balloting for strike action?

We always seek to negotiate in good faith with employers. The Association of Colleges (AoC) has failed to recommend a pay rise that would close the gap between FE and schoolteachers, tackle increasingly unmanageable workloads, or repair a broken national bargaining system. We cannot afford to wait passively for change. The time to act is now.

What’s the dispute about?

• Pay: the value of FE pay has fallen even further behind teachers in schools, who were recently awarded 4%.
  Our claim for a 10% pay rise is reasonable and a good starting point to begin to close the gap and reverse the decline in FE pay. FE England staff deserve their pay to keep pace with inflation. Pay has fallen around 35% in the last decade but the sector has received additional funding over the last three years. We need to close the gap with schoolteacher’s pay. Staff deserve a pay rise.
• Workload: we need national agreements to address unmanageable workloads. UCU research shows excessive and unmanageable workloads are all too prevalent in the sector. FE staff on average work two days for free each week. The impact on staff is significant, and we need action from employers and a national agreement to reset matters. We need limits on annual teaching hours, on weekly teaching hours, evening and weekend work and agreement on class sizes.
• National negotiations: the current system of non-binding recommendations from the AoC doesn’t work and this is failing the sector, staff, and students. We need a New Deal for FE. Unlike other parts of the UK where teacher’s pay and FE pay is linked, in England the outcomes of national talks are not binding or fully funded, and colleges have no requirement to implement any offer made. FE has been reclassified as part of the public sector. The current national bargaining agreement with non-binding outcomes is failing the sector. We need fully funded national pay bargaining with binding outcomes.

Why you deserve better

FE England staff deserve their pay to keep pace with inflation and pay parity with schoolteachers. Not only has pay fallen 35% in recent years, but over the last few years the sector has received additional funding from the UK government. That funding must go on staff pay. This dispute is about putting pressure on college employers, so the vast majority of FE funding is used to give you a decent pay rise, start to close the gap with schoolteachers pay, as well as pressing employers to engage meaningfully about workloads, and joining with us to work towards a new national settlement for FE.

Ballot timetable

Members working for around over 60 FE England college employers will be included in this ballot (corresponding to almost 100 FE England UCU branches). The ballot will be conducted by the independent election scrutineer Civica Election Services as a postal vote as required by law; please note that there is no online option available for voting for industrial action in the UK. The timeframe is the following:

• Monday 13 October 2025: ballot opens
• Monday 20 October 2025 (09:00): replacement ballot request form opens
• Tuesday 11 November 2025 (17:00): last day for new members to join UCU, or for members to update their membership status or membership category (to become ballot eligible), and still be automatically included in the FE industrial action ballot
• Wednesday 12 November 2025 (23:59): replacement ballot request form closes
• Thursday 13 November 2025: last ‘safe’ date to post the ballot
• Monday 17 November 2025 (17:00): ballot closes

What is happening?

UCU is running a consultation, in the form of an electronic ballot, of members in further education (FE) colleges in England to discern the level of support for an industrial action ballot in Autumn 2025, should the further education sector conference at UCU Congress 2025 vote for one. The industrial action ballot will be in support of delivering a New Deal for FE.

The electronic ballot will open on Thursday 22 May 2025 and close on Friday 20 June 2025.

Eligible UCU FE members will receive an email containing a unique weblink which can be used to cast their vote. Members should not forward or share their unique voting link.

Please vote YES in support of a national industrial action ballot.