WALTHAM FOREST: Sixth form teachers set to strike (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

Teachers at Waltham Forest sixth forms vote to strike over pay and funding

5:11pm Monday 6th February 2012 in News By Joe Curtis

MORE than a hundred college teachers are set to strike later this month.

Staff at Sir George Monoux College in Chingford Road, Walthamstow, and Leyton Sixth Form College in Essex Road, Leyton, plan to stage the walk out in protest at a reported pay offer and cuts to further education budgets.

The industrial action has been earmarked for February 23, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) has announced.

It expects 120 teachers to take part.

Funding to sixth forms has been cut by a reported 17 per cent and the NUT has criticised a pay offer of less than one per cent set by colleges, which it says is a wage cut when inflation is taken into account.

Rinaldo Frezzato of Waltham Forest NUT said: “Both these sixth forms are at severe risk of redundancies if the Government’s cuts go ahead.

“That means children’s education will suffer because they will have less courses available and ultimately that will leave Britain’s economy in a worse state.”

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers is understood to be considering a ballot on the pay issue, as is the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers.

The college has said it will remain open if a strike takes place and denied staff are at risk of redundancy.

A spokeswoman added that it is doing well in terms of funding criteria, such as student numbers and exam results.

She said: “Sir George Monoux College is very proud of its excellent teaching and we always do our utmost to put our learners’ needs first and to ensure they do not lose out during actions such as this.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “Strikes benefit no one. We are investing record funding of £7.5 billion in 16 to 19-year-olds’ education this year, despite the tightest public finances for a generation.

"It is down to sixth form colleges to decide their own pay and conditions – but there is a pay freeze across the rest of the public sector to deal with the deficit, so the employers’ decisions could have come as no surprise.”

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