After ten days of strike action, teaching staff within the Capital City College Group (CCCG) won a one-off £700 pay award, ahead of talks on pay rises at Easter 2022. The CCCG includes the further education colleges Westminster Kingsway, City and Islington, and College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London (CONEL). In addition a deal was reached over excessive monitoring of classes. This ‘open classroom model’ would have allowed teachers and lecturers to be observed at any time by management ad would be linked through their performance to the job’s future. Teaching staff will now receive 15 to 20 minute visits three times a year, not linked to the future of their jobs, and there would now be prior notification. In addition, CONEL teaching staff will be put on London weighting worth £1,700 and be moved onto a CCCG contract worth an extra £1,500 plus an additional three days holiday, bringing them into line with other colleges in the group.
However a consolidated pay rise was NOT won and this remains up for grabs in the coming Easter pay talks. During the strike senior management made a big push to turn students against teaching staff but there was massive support for the strikes. Meanwhile cleaners and learning support staff are on zero hours contracts. Any further action in the further education colleges needs to look for solidarity between all workers there, teaching staff and support staff and actively draw in the support of students. This will mean the creation of committees and councils looking towards mass assemblies, where the false divisions between teaching staff, support staff and students can be broken down.