Report on 2012/13 FE pay negotiations - England

22/05/2012

Report on 2012/13 FE pay negotiations - England
There has been an ominous start to this year’s negotiations.

The AoC at our first negotiating meeting yesterday, refused to make any pay offer until the trade unions accepted that as part of the settlement, local employers could freeze or discontinue incremental progression on pay scales.

The union side was also asked to sign up to a statement supporting further “flexibility” on local college working hours and conditions of service.

Unsurprisingly, all trade unions rejected outright such an outrageous demand. The ending of incremental progression would mean massive pay cuts for huge numbers of staff and effectively tear up national pay scales.

Employer representatives were firmly informed by the trade union side that it was unacceptable negotiating practice to seek to impose such conditions before making any offer whatsoever.

The trade union side advised the AoC to rethink its position for the next meeting which is on 1 June.