New College Swindon staff to strike over pay and working conditions
The strikes will take place on Wednesday, 14th January, Thursday, 15th January, and Friday, 16th January,
Staff at New College Swindon will take part in three days of strike action next week, in a dispute over pay and working conditions.
The strikes will take place on Wednesday, 14th January, Thursday, 15th January, and Friday, 16th January, with picket lines planned at both the Queens Drive site (SN3 1AH) and North Star Avenue site (SN2 1DY) from 7.30am to 1pm each day.
Members of the University and College Union (UCU) are unhappy with what they believe is an unfair pay gap between school and college teachers, as well as a lack of national workload agreements and sectoral bargaining to prevent repeated industrial action.
Striking staff from across England also plan to rally at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster at 12pm on Friday, 16th January.
The UCU general secretary, Jo Grady said:
“Industrial action is last resort for our members, but staff at New College Swindon have been left with no choice.
"There is still time for management to make a fair offer that helps close the pay gap between school and college teachers.
“Our demands are reasonable, and management needs to look at those that worked to settle their disputes.
"Employers must now agree to meaningful sectoral bargaining so further education can avoid the cycle of strike ballots and disruption that we have seen over the past few years.”
In response to the strike action, New College Swindon issued a statement acknowledging the industrial action and said that they are engaging with union representatives to address staff concerns.
The college said, “To date these discussions have not been successful.
"We firmly believe that our teaching staff are well supported, both in terms of pay and the professional support provided to enable high-quality teaching, planning, and curriculum development for all students.”
They added: "We appreciate that teaching can often be a high pressure and demanding job and the wellbeing of our staff is extremely important to us.
"We greatly value the dedication and professionalism that colleagues demonstrate every day in support of our students.
"Whilst we remain committed to ongoing dialogue with the union, we are proud to continue to offer our teaching staff one of the best pay and conditions packages for the sector, in the South West."
The College said they are taking steps to minimise disruption to students’ learning during the strikes, including setting remote work, providing online tutor contact, live remote sessions, and face-to-face sessions as needed.
Further updates and arrangements will be communicated directly to students and parents via email.