TEACHERS at non-academised sixth form colleges announced further strike action today after they were offered less pay than their peers.

More than 2,000 National Education Union (NEU) members at 32 of the colleges will walk out on January 29 and on February 6 and 7. 

News of the strikes follows last summer’s announcement that teachers in England would receive a fully funded 5.5 per cent pay rise from September, while their colleagues in sixth forms without academy status were offered only 3.5 per cent.

Unions have rejected the offer from the Sixth Form Colleges Association as constituting a two-tier pay award.

NEU members have already staged seven days of strikes as part of the dispute.

Today, general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “We should not have entered the new year with this glaringly obvious injustice still in place and it is well past time that the government put the necessary funding in place to guarantee the same pay award for every college teacher.   

“We will never accept a situation in which college teachers in non-academised colleagues are paid less than their academised peers for identical work. 

“It is absurd and blatantly unfair to underfund sixth form colleges in this way, risking lasting damage to long-standing collective bargaining arrangements. 

“We call on those in power to do what is right and guarantee funding for the same pay rise for all college teachers.” 

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Ensuring people have the skills they need for the future is crucial to this government’s number one mission to grow the economy.

“The October Budget provided an additional £300 million revenue funding for further education to ensure young people are developing the skills they need to seize opportunity and drive growth.”

Bill Watkin, Chief Executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said: “We are extremely disappointed that NEU has announced further strike action before our formal pay talks have concluded.

“We have made a pay offer that amounts to 4.3% across the year and is well above the rate of inflation. We cannot make a 5.5% pay offer for the whole year, because the government has not provided funding for the whole year.

“The government could stop the strikes immediately by providing sixth form colleges with the same funding to support a pay increase that they have provided to schools and academies. We urge them to do so without delay”.