School Support Staff (UCU) Strike Calendar

Staff at five colleges in Stockton on Tees, Redcar and Cleveland will begin strike action next month as part of an ongoing dispute over low pay unless management make a realistic pay offer, the University and College Union (UCU) announced today

Three days of strikes will take place at Bede Sixth Form College, NETA Training Group, Stockton Riverside College, The Skills Academy and Redcar and Cleveland College, all of which are part of employer group Education Training Collective (ETC).

The dispute is over the employer's 22/23 pay award of 3% which was rejected by UCU members. The college then offered to add an additional 1% from May and to remove the bottom point of the lecturer pay spine, which UCU members again voted to reject.

UCU said it wants employers to negotiate before staff are forced to strike, and that it has already settled disputes at 15 colleges, avoiding strike action, after receiving pay offers of up to 8.5%.

Employer representative, the Association of Colleges (AoC), has recommended a pay uplift of 6.5% but colleges do not have to follow it, and many have failed to do so in previous pay rounds.

• The University and College Union (UCU) has announced three days of strike action at Sparsholt College, starting Monday, January 9
• The action is in response to management's refusal to make a "realistic" pay offer to staff
• The college has run a surplus for the past two years and has more than £7m in the bank, according to its most recent financial report
• The pay of senior staff has increased by more than 16%, while 60% of total income is spent on staff, which is 8% below the English average
• The college has offered an £850 consolidated pay rise and one-off payments of £450 since previous strikes began
• RPI inflation currently stands at 14%, and the college is located in one of the least affordable areas in the UK
• The management team at Sparsholt College Group has said that lessons and bus services will continue to run as normal during the strike