College lecturers back strike action in dispute over pay

College lecturers across Scotland have said they will strike unless their demands for better pay are met.

Members of the Further Education Lecturers’ Association (Fela), part of the EIS union, backed both strike action and action short of strike, the union revealed on Friday, in the next step of their ongoing pay battle with colleges.

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the EIS, said: “Words of gratitude, and a pay offer that does not begin to address the pressures on the cost of living, are not enough.”

But Alex Linkston, of College Employers Scotland, said the pay offer “pushes colleges to the absolute financial max” and warned strike action “could cause serious disruption to our students”.

EIS-Fela said it has requested further negotiations, which it said was an “effort to avoid further disruptive industrial action across all colleges in Scotland due to begin in only a few weeks”.

Mr Flanagan said, during the pandemic, college lecturers “have stood up and delivered for students” and have gone “above and beyond in ensuring that those who attend college” had high standards of learning and teaching.

“They have done this despite an EIS survey showing EIS-Fela members experiencing rising levels of stress and workload, while many college lecturers have received no wellbeing check from their employers,” he said.

“Since the advent of national bargaining, there has been only one occasion in which college employers have made an acceptable pay award without EIS-Fela members taking industrial action.”

“The EIS urges the employers side of the National Joint Negotiating Committee to buck this trend and accept EIS-Fela’s offer of further negotiations and to return to the table with a pay offer that avoids unnecessary and wholly avoidable industrial action within the further education sector.”

In the ballot of members, EIS-Fela said more than 70% indicated their willingness to take strike action, and more than 80% said they were ready to use action short of strike, including a resulting boycott in terms of qualifications, if no improvement can be made.

But Mr Linkston said the vote to take industrial action was “deeply disappointing” and added: “We cannot offer money that we do not have.”

“We have offered all lecturing staff an extra £1,000 this year, equivalent to an average increase of 2.2%. This is more than teachers, civil servants, police, and fire service have already accepted,” he said.

“Part of the reason such a significant offer is on the table is employers’ want to acknowledge the outstanding work carried out by college staff throughout the pandemic.”

Mr Linkston added colleges in Scotland were facing a real terms cut of £51.9 million next year and that they “are having to make stark choices”.

“College lecturers in Scotland already have excellent pay, terms and conditions – by far the best in the UK – and we would urge the EIS-Fela to accept the offer on the table.”