Since 2009 pay in further education has fallen behind inflation by 35 per cent and the pay gap between school and college teachers stands at around £9,000.
Some staff of the Lewisham College in the United Kingdom on Monday protested and shut down the college to express their displeasure over the poor pay in the sector.
This was seen in a viral video obtained by SaharaReporters, where the teachers were complaining that their salaries could no longer pay their bills and this has been affecting their emotional and mental health.
Lewisham College is a further education college in the London Borough of Lewisham, south-east London. It was established in 1990, having previously been known as SELTEC (South East London College of Technology since the early 1970s, which was run by the Inner London Education Authority. The college has two campuses, its main one on Lewisham Way in Brockley, and another one in Church Street.
Since 2009 pay in further education has fallen behind inflation by 35 per cent and the pay gap between school and college teachers stands at around £9,000.
Peter Bicknell, a librarian at the College, said he was going on strike because wages had been frozen for too long and his finances were worsening.
He said, “Going into my overdraft is frequent for me now. The energy price increases and cost of food has made it so difficult.
“Enough is enough. We’ve seen [pay] freeze after freeze after freeze. It’s been building for months, some of my colleagues are in a much worse position than me. Hopefully this will have an impact.
UCU has said unqualified college teachers earn as little as £21,000 whilst qualified teachers earn as little as £26,000.
In June, employer representative, the Association of Colleges made a pay recommendation of 2.5 per cent, while RPI inflation is now at 12.3 per cent.
Staff and Lewisham College are employed by the education organisation NCG.
One of the teachers, Georgi Bochevski, said, “When you can’t pay the rent, your transport, you have to find the solution to start doing any extra work. And if you don't have time for extra work then you can take credit cards or overdrafts. And when you can't meet these basic needs, you start to struggle mentally.”
Another teacher, Portia Tertullian, said it is worrying her because she doesn't know how long the situation would be without resolution.
The students were also seen backing their teachers during the protest. For Instance, one of the students, Millicent Zwane said, “I support it 100% because it is not fair on the teachers. Because I came this morning to study and I found out there is a strike because they are not being paid enough.”