Strike action underway at South West College

A FIVE day strike involving staff of all six further education colleges in the North, including South West College in Omagh and Dungannon have started today.

The University and College Union (UCU) stated they had been forced to initiate action after a decade of their members being subjected to a pay freeze. The strike will start on Monday, September 18 and will run for a full week, just as all courses resume for the academic year. Following that, staff will take one day of strike action once every six days for the next three months or until such times as the dispute is resolved.

The UCU has said it will not stand by and allow the pay degradation of lecturers in the North to continue. Katharine Clarke, an official of the UCU explained, “Neither the employers nor the DfE have taken reasonable steps to close the education pay gap.

“Year after year we have seen pay awards for corporate staff prioritised within college budgets that far exceed pay settlements for lecturers.

“Those engaged in curriculum delivery have been treated as a second class workforce within the system.

“The UCU demand is simple, all staff in FE must be fairly rewarded for their work.

“There will be continuous disruption across the sector until those who hold the purse strings get real and start addressing lecturer pay in a meaningful way.” She continued, “Over the period where lecturer pay has declined, we’ve seen shiny new campuses pop up at most of the colleges.

“The sector needs to prioritise investment in its people not just its buildings.

“Bricks and mortar do not deliver curriculum.

“Lecturer pay is now so unattractive the FE sector is facing the very real prospect of having the best of classrooms but with nobody to teach in them.”