THOUSANDS of workers accepted a 4 per cent pay offer from the Sixth Form College Association (SFCA) while rejecting its response to their workload demands, the National Education Union (NEU) said today.

More than 4,300 workers at 72 sixth forms voted to accept a pay offer by 93.9 per cent to accept the offer with a turnout of 62.9 per cent.

But they rejected by 86.6 per cent the SFCA’s response to the workload demands on a turnout of 61.4 per cent.

NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede described the pay award as going “some way to putting right the pay injustice experienced by non-academised college teachers last year caused by inadequate funding.”

But members have “clearly signalled that they expect significant movement by the SFCA on all of their workload demands,” he added.

“We cannot accept half-measures.”

A spokesperson for SFCA said: “We are pleased that agreement has been reached on the pay settlement for teachers for 2025/26. 

“This is a competitive agreement and provides a pay increase for all NJC teachers above the rate of CPI inflation and more than the vast majority of other public sector workers. 

“We are engaged in constructive discussions with the staff side on teacher workload and these will continue during the Autumn term”.