The administration has finally agreed to our terms and reached a formal settlement with the unions. I appreciate the steadfast commitment of everyone who supported this initiative until we secured a fair resolution.
November 17, 2021
Final supporters
Dear Roy/Alastair
Three years ago, after our last strike, UCU wrote this,
‘It’s been a breath of fresh air working with the new CEO who has a very different approach to industrial relations and a very clear and optimistic vision about how the group can go forward both financially and educationally.’
We bought into and were excited by this new vision.
The CEO rightly prided himself on his ability to bring people together, and was recruited as the CEO on the basis of being able to do so.
Three years on and we are going through the longest industrial action the group, indeed any of the colleges, have ever undertaken.
Alastair in a letter to staff, celebrating the pay award three years ago, stated, ‘There has been much talk in the sector and the media about pay gaps between different groups, including organisations’ executives and their staff’
Sadly, the pay gap is still as wide as ever.
Is it really beyond the capacity of the Board, the CEO and your senior management to be able to reach an agreement with UCU/NEU negotiators, who represent the views of the vast majority of teaching staff, so that we can all celebrate as we did three years ago?
The three elements of our claim are modest ones. Pay, as you both have stated many times before is a real problem within the sector. Yes, this is due to lack of government funding, but CCCG is not a financially poor organisation.
We have also just heard that the Marlborough Building (alongside others) have been placed on the market. This is a decision that the unions don’t support and we are dismayed this has not been discussed with staff to seek their views on this issue. If it goes ahead, millions of pounds will be brought into the organisation. Your stated aim for closing the Marlborough building, temporarily, was to save money which could be ringfenced for a pay award.
The offer of a series of one-off payments totalling £1000 to represent the total pay awards for the years 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 is worth less than £1 per day.
At the heart of this dispute lies the desire for staff to be professionally respected.
Your own staff survey results revealed how low morale is at the college. The results show that CCCG compared to 48 colleges were “below average in all categories” and “near the bottom in most”. We can’t simply sweep these results under the carpet as if they were never recorded.
Workload intensification and the TLADP are issues that you and your senior management could do something about immediately to begin to demonstrate that the leadership of the group are genuine about wanting to bring back a sense of professional respect. Imposing a TLADP on staff that will see them observed every three weeks is not a sign that the leadership respect or trust staff.
According to your own figures (taken from the board minutes), 86% of teaching staff out of 900 are rated as good or better. This means that only 14% of lecturers, judged on your assessments, are considered to 'require improvement'. Again, according to the report to the governing board, the existing college protocols and policies are already supporting these staff to help them improve. These measures only need to improve one in three of those being supported to move from ‘needs improvement’ to good or better in order to meet the ‘no more than 10%’ Ofsted requirements you are targeting.
So why does the board and senior management insist on such extreme monitoring polices and stubbornly refuse to consider alternative polices that could unite teachers and their managers with the senior leadership team and the board?
Refusing to seek a policy that can do this will deepen divisions, raise staff and student anxiety and stress, risk significant reputational damage to the group (who would want to apply for a job at CCCG with this policy?) and lead to the complete evaporation of goodwill.
All of this with an Ofsted inspection imminent.
With so much at stake, staff do not understand why our CEO has not been present at any of the negotiations to use his skills to bring the two sides together.
We call upon you to:
· Reopen negotiations with UCU/NEU to reach an agreement that everyone can celebrate to avoid further disruption.
· As the person ultimately responsible for the running of the college we call upon the CEO to personally attend and supervise these negotiations.
Updates
Reached 250 supporters
November 4, 2021
October 29, 2021
The momentum generated by this collective effort demonstrates the clear resolve of our staff. Your commitment to these issues remains a vital component as we pursue a fair resolution.
Reached 100 supporters
October 20, 2021
October 19, 2021
We are approaching one hundred signatures which will establish a clear threshold for our formal engagement with the Board. I encourage those who have not yet added their names to do so before we submit this document to the Chair of Governors.
74 Comments
College staff deserve a better deal overall. Unison stand in solidarity with UCU and NEU teaching staff here. Support staff are worse off. Incremental progression is non-existent and the pay scale is very narrow but the workload and demands have increased whilst they are pared down to the bare minimum.
Our senior managers sell a building for 28 million pounds and claim poverty they insult us about being overpaid, they stir up hatred with our students claiming we are at fault for their poor educational environment. while the CEO earns £6000 a week plus.
Multiple studies show that increasing observations with the purpose of quality assurance has almost no impact on student outcome (you can infer it does not improve teaching), so why the determination to push through this policy?
I am on a Zero hour contract, it's not pretty, it's ugly, it's embarrassing and no body should be treated this way especially by a big employer as CCCG. I don't have a job security, I can't get a loan or even a mortgage on this contract because apparently I am unemployed.
As an employee within Business Support staff, I felt the need to join UCU in an organisation once small, friendly and supportive, now large, impersonal and imposing, to have a voice. Myself and colleagues work in this sector to empower our communities, we love what we do, but one cannot live on love alone!
Sad that it has come to this. To not even get some tiny increase well below inflation means every member has no choice but to strike again.
We teachers work hard to make challenging nature of adult lifelong learning seems simple.
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The administration has finally agreed to our terms and reached a formal settlement with the unions. I appreciate the steadfast commitment of everyone who supported this initiative until we secured a fair resolution.
November 17, 2021
Final supporters
Dear Roy/Alastair
Three years ago, after our last strike, UCU wrote this,
‘It’s been a breath of fresh air working with the new CEO who has a very different approach to industrial relations and a very clear and optimistic vision about how the group can go forward both financially and educationally.’
We bought into and were excited by this new vision.
The CEO rightly prided himself on his ability to bring people together, and was recruited as the CEO on the basis of being able to do so.
Three years on and we are going through the longest industrial action the group, indeed any of the colleges, have ever undertaken.
Alastair in a letter to staff, celebrating the pay award three years ago, stated, ‘There has been much talk in the sector and the media about pay gaps between different groups, including organisations’ executives and their staff’
Sadly, the pay gap is still as wide as ever.
Is it really beyond the capacity of the Board, the CEO and your senior management to be able to reach an agreement with UCU/NEU negotiators, who represent the views of the vast majority of teaching staff, so that we can all celebrate as we did three years ago?
The three elements of our claim are modest ones. Pay, as you both have stated many times before is a real problem within the sector. Yes, this is due to lack of government funding, but CCCG is not a financially poor organisation.
We have also just heard that the Marlborough Building (alongside others) have been placed on the market. This is a decision that the unions don’t support and we are dismayed this has not been discussed with staff to seek their views on this issue. If it goes ahead, millions of pounds will be brought into the organisation. Your stated aim for closing the Marlborough building, temporarily, was to save money which could be ringfenced for a pay award.
The offer of a series of one-off payments totalling £1000 to represent the total pay awards for the years 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 is worth less than £1 per day.
At the heart of this dispute lies the desire for staff to be professionally respected.
Your own staff survey results revealed how low morale is at the college. The results show that CCCG compared to 48 colleges were “below average in all categories” and “near the bottom in most”. We can’t simply sweep these results under the carpet as if they were never recorded.
Workload intensification and the TLADP are issues that you and your senior management could do something about immediately to begin to demonstrate that the leadership of the group are genuine about wanting to bring back a sense of professional respect. Imposing a TLADP on staff that will see them observed every three weeks is not a sign that the leadership respect or trust staff.
According to your own figures (taken from the board minutes), 86% of teaching staff out of 900 are rated as good or better. This means that only 14% of lecturers, judged on your assessments, are considered to 'require improvement'. Again, according to the report to the governing board, the existing college protocols and policies are already supporting these staff to help them improve. These measures only need to improve one in three of those being supported to move from ‘needs improvement’ to good or better in order to meet the ‘no more than 10%’ Ofsted requirements you are targeting.
So why does the board and senior management insist on such extreme monitoring polices and stubbornly refuse to consider alternative polices that could unite teachers and their managers with the senior leadership team and the board?
Refusing to seek a policy that can do this will deepen divisions, raise staff and student anxiety and stress, risk significant reputational damage to the group (who would want to apply for a job at CCCG with this policy?) and lead to the complete evaporation of goodwill.
All of this with an Ofsted inspection imminent.
With so much at stake, staff do not understand why our CEO has not been present at any of the negotiations to use his skills to bring the two sides together.
We call upon you to:
· Reopen negotiations with UCU/NEU to reach an agreement that everyone can celebrate to avoid further disruption.
· As the person ultimately responsible for the running of the college we call upon the CEO to personally attend and supervise these negotiations.
Updates
Reached 250 supporters
November 4, 2021
October 29, 2021
The momentum generated by this collective effort demonstrates the clear resolve of our staff. Your commitment to these issues remains a vital component as we pursue a fair resolution.
Reached 100 supporters
October 20, 2021
October 19, 2021
We are approaching one hundred signatures which will establish a clear threshold for our formal engagement with the Board. I encourage those who have not yet added their names to do so before we submit this document to the Chair of Governors.
74 Comments
I am suporting the strike even though I will never recover the loss in my salary due to the industrial action because I strongly feel that the top brass have got it all wrong. They are here today, gone tomorrow managers who leave behind a mess that teachers end up clearing!
College staff deserve a better deal overall. Unison stand in solidarity with UCU and NEU teaching staff here. Support staff are worse off. Incremental progression is non-existent and the pay scale is very narrow but the workload and demands have increased whilst they are pared down to the bare minimum.
Our senior managers sell a building for 28 million pounds and claim poverty they insult us about being overpaid, they stir up hatred with our students claiming we are at fault for their poor educational environment. while the CEO earns £6000 a week plus.
Multiple studies show that increasing observations with the purpose of quality assurance has almost no impact on student outcome (you can infer it does not improve teaching), so why the determination to push through this policy?
I am on a Zero hour contract, it's not pretty, it's ugly, it's embarrassing and no body should be treated this way especially by a big employer as CCCG. I don't have a job security, I can't get a loan or even a mortgage on this contract because apparently I am unemployed.
As an employee within Business Support staff, I felt the need to join UCU in an organisation once small, friendly and supportive, now large, impersonal and imposing, to have a voice. Myself and colleagues work in this sector to empower our communities, we love what we do, but one cannot live on love alone!
Sad that it has come to this. To not even get some tiny increase well below inflation means every member has no choice but to strike again.
We teachers work hard to make challenging nature of adult lifelong learning seems simple.
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I am suporting the strike even though I will never recover the loss in my salary due to the industrial action because I strongly feel that the top brass have got it all wrong. They are here today, gone tomorrow managers who leave behind a mess that teachers end up clearing!