- Conference
- 2006 Local Government Service Group Conference
- Date
- 17 February 2006
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
This Conference notes that further education colleges face significant challenges in securing implementation of national pay and conditions agreements. These have recommendation status only and at least one third of colleges ignore them. This problem is compounded by the unstable and variable funding environment and the business ethos of colleges which are corporations.
Over the last 10 years or more pay, conditions of service and employment practices have deviated from a standard and there is no agreed national “book” which representatives can rely on. Sixth form colleges have adhered to national agreements more closely but also suffer from low membership density and levels of activism.
The national modernising agreement resulted in a harmonised pay spine, a minimum wage and a job evaluation scheme which should redress some of the accumulated difficulties in the sector. However, limited responses to repeated surveys suggest that only a minority of colleges have fully implemented the agreement. There are also cash-strapped colleges which have failed to even pay the cost of living rises over a number of years. In many colleges, an unwillingness to take action to support implementation is symptomatic of demoralisation and a lack of industrial confidence.
Delivering improvement is problematic as a one-size strategy does not fit all. It must rely largely on local levels of organisation which are supported and co-ordinated at regional and national level. A motion to conference 2004: Winning the Organised College called for branches to ensure that college sites had a full complement of trained and resourced stewards, health and safety and learning reps. Survey results (based on a 13% return) suggest that progress, if any, has been marginal.
This Conference acknowledges the organisational deficit in colleges and resolves to:
Ensure that regional local government service groups, in partnership with regional staff, take steps to build organising capacity within the region to support colleges, to include:
1)Trawling for new reps at site visits
2)Negotiating time-off and facilities for them
3)Arranging a programme of training courses
4)Providing IT or other equipment
5)Helping reps to map their membership and to increase it
6)Ensuring that they understand how UNISON works and how they can draw on its services
7)Facilitating regional networking and events
8)Assisting colleges to establish their own branches, where appropriate.