FE teachers let down in Northern Ireland

The University and College Union (UCU) and NASUWT are furious after a payment of £3,000 offered to further education (FE) workers by employers was withdrawn at the last minute. More than 1,700 lecturers in Northern Ireland’s six colleges have been told they will not receive a £3,000 one-off payment they had expected this month.

The employers said the Department for Economy (DfE) would not approve the payment without agreement on the wider pay deal – which is currently in stalemate, after teachers from both unions resoundingly rejected an offer of 1% for 2021-22 and 1% for 2022-23.

Staff had been participating in the UCU’s marking and assessment boycott as a form of action short of a strike, but suspended this believing that they would receive a lump sum in June.

UCU official Katherine Clarke said that the union “cannot trust anything the further education employers tell us ever again”.