Capital City College teachers staged nine months of action in a pay dispute

MONTHS of strikes have come to an end after chiefs at Capital City College partially caved to its sixth-form teachers’ pay demands.

The deal, agreed between the NEU and college executives, will see staff awarded a 7 per cent increase for the rest of the academic year.

It follows nine months of action from teachers at the campus in Angel, which have included 19 days on strike. Teachers had been demonstrating against the college’s decision not to give them the nationally agreed pay award for the first time in three decades.

“We’ve shown that any members locally are willing to struggle for what they believe is their entitlement in terms of pay”, NEU representative Nick Lawson told the Tribune.

CCC had argued that “a climate of reduced government funding” for further education colleges had left them unable to honour recommendations made by the Sixth Form College Association for the sixth form part of the college.

Mr Lawson said: “The college obviously has the money to do this, because they have been able to meet our demands, so it’s disappointing that they weren’t able to come to this position earlier without disruption to our students.”

NEU members previously claimed that it would cost just over £30,000 to give all teachers at City and Islington college the pay award for this year.

CEO Angela Joyce continues to earn a salary well into six figures, according to financial statements.

Union members have been forced to make concessions, however, and have agreed for pay to be agreed locally rather than nationally from the next academic year.

“It’s a setback”, said Mr Lawson. “But members will fight for what they think is right. Next year is next year, whether it is local or national, pay negotiations will happen. We’ll be made an offer, there will be counter-offers, and in the end it is up for us to accept or reject”.

A spokesperson for CCC said: “Our students have been at the forefront during this difficult period and so we are pleased that the teachers who are NEU members have finally agreed to receive the same annual pay award as all the other teachers at Capital City College, starting from next year. Creating equity for all our excellent teaching staff based across London was the reason behind the dispute.”