Staff at five colleges to strike over pay

Redcar and Cleveland College staff are among those taking industrial action

Staff working at five colleges are to take strike action in a dispute over pay.

The walkouts will take place on 20 and 21 March at colleges in Billingham, Redcar and Stockton-on-Tees.

University and College Union (UCU) members rejected the latest pay offer from their employer the Education Training Collective (ETC).

UCU has also warned it will open a new strike ballot to allow it to carry out further industrial action.

Strikes have been called at Bede Sixth Form College, NETA Training Group, Stockton Riverside College, The Skills Academy and Redcar and Cleveland College.

The dispute is over the 2022-23 pay award.

A total of 79.3% of UCU members at the five colleges voted to reject ETC's latest pay offer, on a turnout of 64%.

'Not one penny'

The union said ETC's offer did not include any improvement on pay.

Instead it offered two extra "wellbeing days" and additional points on the lecturer and course leader pay scales starting on 1 August 2023.

Staff at the colleges have been offered a 3% pay increase for 2022-23, with an additional 1% from May 2023.

UCU regional support official Chris Robinson said: "Since we won our original strike ballot last September management has not put one extra penny on the table to resolve this dispute.

"If ETC is really serious about ending this dispute, it will get back around the table and put up a serious offer.

"If it fails to do so the college group will face further disruption."