Pay award for College staff

For a long time, the College has been unable to make a cross-college pay award, largely due to its financial problems and sector-wide funding issues.

Although we continue to face financial pressures (in common with the rest of the FE sector) and we expect 2021/22 to be another challenging year, we are beginning to see some signs of improvement in our position.

In addition, while this year has been unlike any other, college staff have shown exceptional work, commitment and energy to tackle the difficulties which have been presented by it.

On this basis, the College recently agreed a pay settlement with the UCU which has now been ratified by the Board of Governors and the College is therefore pleased to announce the following:

College staff have received an immediate consolidated pay rise of 2.2%. This has been backdated to 1 August 2021 and colleagues saw this reflected in their October pay. There will be an additional two college closure days, increasing the overall number of closure days to 10 for all staff. These will be detailed on the College Delivery Planner shortly. A firm commitment to work with the Unions to bring forward a hybrid working policy which applies equally to teaching and non-teaching staff, recognising the trust and confidence we have in our staff to work effectively from home as well as on College sites, where appropriate and in the best interests of our learners. This will be agreed and implemented by Christmas. A firm commitment to work collaboratively with the Unions in reviewing additional recognised reasons for remission from teaching hours and the agreed level of that remission. A commitment to work with the Unions to amend the agreed teaching hours for lecturing staff from the current 870 hours per year to 840 hours per year with details surrounding the implementation for this to be agreed between the College and the Unions over the course of this academic year.