U.K.
Workers across higher education - from catering and cleaning workers to college lecturers and administrators - were involved in strike action on 31 October in protest at the 1% pay increase offered by employers. The unions point out that their members have lost 15% of purchasing power over the past four years and around 4000 employees are paid less than the living wage.
Read more at > UNISON
And at > Unite
And at > EPSU
Members of Unison working in higher education - caterers, cleaners, security guards and student support staff - will join teachers in a third one-day strike over pay on 6 February. Low paid staff in higher education who have seen their pay fall by 13% in real terms over the past five years but universities are refusing to increase their 1% pay offer. More than 4,000 higher education workers are currently paid below the living wage, which is £7.65 (€9.30) an hour or £8.80 (€10.70) an hour in London. [Read more at > Unison->http://www.unison.org.uk/news/higher-education-workers-to-walk-out-for
On 29 October thousands of people took part in a protest rally outside parliament to call for urgent action in the education sector. The demonstration was supported by EPSU affiliate the Trade Union of the National Ukrainian Academy of Science. The wide range of demands included a call for an increase in education spending to 7% of GDP, implementation of approved pay scales and an increase in the sector minimum wage and action to prevent teacher dismissals, transfer to fixed-term contracts and increases in working hours.
(September 2016) Non-teaching staff in higher education in England and Wales are being balloted for industrial action while non-teaching staff in Scottish futher educations take industrial action on 6 September. In England and Wales unions generally in higher education have rejected a 1.1% pay offer from the employers while in Scotland non-teaching staff are objecting to the flat-rate pay offer that is nearly half the level of the flat-rate pay increase awarded to teaching staff. Read more at Unison on higher education and FE in Scotland. Also at Unite.
