Teachers at three sixth form colleges in Sussex are expected to take further strike action in their dispute over pay.
More than 2,000 National Education Union (NEU) members in sixth form colleges that are not academies are due to walk out on Wednesday 29 January, Thursday 6 February and Friday 7 February, the union said.
Seven days of strike action have already been taken by NEU members at 32 sixth form colleges since November.
They include Varndean College, in Brighton, Richard Collyer’s College, Horsham, and Brighton, Hove And Sussex VI Form College (BHASVIC), in Hove.
The government announced last year that teachers in schools across England would receive a fully funded 5.5 per cent pay rise from September 2024.
The Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA) has offered 3.5 per cent to teachers in sixth form colleges that are not academies from last September to March this year – and then 5.5 per cent from April, the NEU said.
Meanwhile, teachers in sixth form colleges with academy status have been offered 5.5 per cent from last September, seven months earlier than their colleagues in non-academised colleges.
The leader of the NEU said that the union opposed the “two-tier pay system” which he called “absurd and blatantly unfair”.
Earlier this week, another teaching union, the NASUWT, started balloting more than 1,800 of its members in sixth form colleges for industrial action in a fight for a fair pay increase.
The ballot of NASUWT members in sixth form colleges – both academies and non-academies – will close on Monday 10 February.
NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “Our sixth form teachers working in non-academised colleges started 2025 on below-freezing picket lines as they showed their determination whatever the weather to reject a two-tier pay system.
“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 under-fund sixth form colleges in this way, risking lasting damage to long-standing collective bargaining arrangements.
“In affected colleges across the nation, from Brighton to Preston, our members remain steadfast in their desire for pay justice across all sixth form colleges.
“We call on those in power to do what is right and guarantee funding for the same pay rise for all college teachers.”
SFCA chief executive Bill Watkin said: “We are extremely disappointed that NEU has announced further strike action before our formal pay talks have concluded.
“Pay rates for sixth from college teachers, excluding annual incremental progression increases, have increased by 18 per cent since September 2022.
“We have made a pay offer that amounts to 4.3 per cent across the year and is well above the rate of inflation.
“We cannot make a 5.5 per cent pay offer for the whole year because the government has not provided funding for the whole year.
“Students will pay the price for this through further disruption to their education.
“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.”
The Department for Education said: “Ensuring people have the skills they need for the future is crucial to this government’s number one mission to grow the economy.
“We recognise the vital role that further education, including sixth form colleges, play in this.
“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.”
