Further education workers across Wales have voted to accept the employers’ revised pay offer. Colleges across Wales had initially planned to freeze pay for the workforce, but revised their offer to 1% following an industrial action ballot in which union members had voted to take industrial action.
“We clearly believe that our members are worth a lot more than the 1% pay increase, however, we are confident that this is the best that could have been achieved without significant industrial action, commented UNISON’s Simon Dunn, who chairs the joint trade unions
“We’re proud that our members were willing to take a stand against a pay freeze and that willingness to take action has meant that an offer was put to the workforce.”
Joint trade union secretary Margaret Phelan added: ”It’s disappointing that the revised pay offer was only made by the employers following the threat of industrial action.
“Colleges across Wales benefit from a motivated and dedicated workforce who deserve to be recognised for the work that they do.
“We hope that the employers learn from this for future years and work towards paying their staff a decent wage, rather than squeeze every penny from pay in order to make savings.
“We want to work with colleges to meet the financial challenges that they experience, but driving down pay across the sector is not the way to do it.”